Frome Town 0 Poole Town 0

Southern Premier League

26 December 2015

The league table doesn't lie and Poole were faced with a Frome team that lacked any sort of threat up front and whose sole ambition was to stop Poole scoring. The fact that Poole didn't score was solely down to incompetence in front of goal and lack of creativity. The conditions played a big part in a dreadful game but the reality was that Poole again should have been two or three up in the first 15 minutes, hitting the post and the bar and forcing two great saves from the Robins' keeper.

After that a familiar pattern emerged with Poole snuffing out most things coming at them in midfield and pressing forward only to see most efforts break up on the edge of the box. It wasn't really a day for pretty football and Burbidge and Dickson hardly got involved in the game so most threats were coming from set pieces. Frome found it relatively easy to defend the predictability and reached half time safely at 0 - 0.

We hoped for some festive cheer in the second half and you couldn't fault Poole for effort but they just didn't have the guile to beat the defenders. As the half wore on Frome gained confidence and mounted a few lightening attacks which got the crowd behind the goal excited but were dealt with well by the Poole defence. When Gillespie came on it was immediately obvious what was missing. He ran on to a ball over the top and won it against heavy pressure from a defender. Shooting early from the edge of the area he beat the keeper but saw the ball hit the far post and bounce away harmlessly.

This was a game best forgotten quickly for a number of reasons. I go to many away matches, some are good places to go and some not so good but I can honestly say that Frome is the place that I look forward to going to least. If you go to football matches you expect to hear supporters being passionate about their team, decisions etc. It is all part of the game. However the level of abuse that the home support gives away supporters is just unacceptable and unecessary. Probably as ever a few people but it does make it a very unpleasant experience and I wouldn't recommend anyone to go there.