Poole Town 1 Barnstaple 0

FA Cup 1st Qualifying round

12 September 2015

On a day when Labour left winger Jeremy Corbyn stormed to the Labour leadership it was Poole's left winger Luke Roberts who made the major contribution to winning this cup tie. After a cut and thrust first 20 minutes, Roberts picked the ball up and ran at defenders and was pulled back before being upended for a penalty. Devlin tucked the ball away in the bottom corner for the 'first' goal. Sadly that was pretty much where the entertainment ended in this game and there was to be no deluge of goals against the minnows or unexpected fightback and upset from Barnstaple. Luke Holmes playing fairly centrally was lively and had a good shot over the bar and Luke Burbidge sent in a number of crosses. Alan Connell had a few shots but worryingly still hasn't scored a goal for Poole. First half shot count was 7 to Poole and 3 to Barnstaple although Barnstaple really offered nothing after the goal.

At half time it was deep joy for the holder of green ticket 425. It was nice to see the salmon given a rest.

The second half was fairly terrible in terms of Poole creating or taking chances with substitutes coming and going. Barnstaple did do better but came up with no real threat - their only shot of the second half coming towards the end. The only real moment of note came when Roberts popped up unmarked to see his header cleared off the line by a defender. Barnstaple had a few corners towards the end and the crowd behind the goal made some sport with the keeper goading him to go forward. He made the right choice in not going forward when the last one went in an out of play without troubling any players. The ref put an end to the afternoon's proceedings in the warm sunshine and the players left to a smattering of applause, the crowd appreciating the effort the Barnstaple players had put in.

It is difficult to assess this game because it looked as though the team was in 3rd gear for most of the match. The aim was to progress to the next round without a replay and that job was done without much trouble. 

A couple of things in the programme that can't go without mention: Jamie - a history lesson; Poole has reached the first round of the FA Cup four times, and famously got to the third round in 1926-27. Clive - Poole 7 Barnstaple 2 August 2009 (Austin 3, Dibba, Preston, Smith).