Whitehawk 2 Poole 0

FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round

24 October 2015

Whitehawk showed why they are 3rd in the National League South and reduced Poole to staying in the game for long periods of this match. They eventually made their superiority tell running out 2 - 0 winners.

In spite of that it could have been so different. Whitehawk were profligate with their many chances and Poole defended heroically to keep the score at 0 - 0 until Will Spetch's sending off. The second yellow was for a soft obstruction and many referees would have looked at the context and given a final warning. This referee decided to apply the letter of the law and made the task almost impossible. Poole held out until half time and could even have taken the lead as Roberts wriggled past a defender on the wing and Brooks put the low cross past the post under heavy pressure. The shot count of 11 - 1 in favour of the home side does tell the story though.

As Poole fans hoped against hope to hang on for a replay the players had other ideas, starting the second half strongly with Burbidge coming into the game. He tricked his way into the box and about to unleash a shot was clipped from behind but no penalty was given. It did seem to be a penalty from behind the goal but the referee waved away strong appeals. Whitehawk immediately went to the other end and scored from a corner. Whether Poole's concentration suffered from the incident is open to debate but that there was to be no way back. Poole were able to put some pressure on the home defence playing a faster and more pressing game in the second half but Whitehawk made many more chances and scored again just before the end.

In other circumstances and with some luck Poole could have won or drawn this game but in other other circumstances Whitehawk could have taken their chances and won by a hat full of goals. Maybe Poole backed off a little too much in the first half but I couldn't fault the Poole effort. Whiskin and Walker were immense at the back and in front of them Pettifer and Devlin were everywhere trying to hunt down the ball. Tallack ran all day and Roberts produced some good moments of trickery. My Star Player today though was Nick Hutchings who not only made some outstanding saves but was a commanding presence in the area.