Poole Town 1 Leamington Town 0

Southern Premier League

5 December 2015

Nicknamed 'The Brakes' Leamington arrived with high hopes but left the field with 9 men, no points and possibly a new nickname. 'The Lemmings' seemed more appropriate as they proceeded to throw themselves off a metaphorical cliff in this match.

Poole were completely dominant in the first quarter with new man Lee Wort looking lively up front. He failed to beat the keeper in a one on one but it was no surprise when Brooks headed in after 20 minutes, his first goal since 10 October. With Poole looking likely to score more the game was ended as a contest when Edwards picked up a yellow for a wild lunge on Roberts and then stupidly kicked out at Devlin in front of the referee and had to take an early spa.Thereafter it became fairly routine for Poole but there wasn't much threat to the goal before half time.

Leamington upped their effort in the second half but it remained comfortable for Poole and a penalty was won as a defender charged down a shot with his hands. The sending off seemed harsh as he was so close to the ball when it was struck but the referee was in a perfect position to see what happened. Devlin missed the penalty - a showy save low to the keeper's left but in reality a nice height and speed to save if you guessed correctly. After that Wort played a nice one two but shot wide and Tallack found himself in the area but his shot was smothered. As the game neared the end everyone was conscious that only one goal up meant that Poole were vulnerable to an equaliser but with 9 men Leamington couldn't really put Poole under any pressure.

My star player today was Carl Pettifer. Although this was one of his easier games due to the lack of opposition in midfield, he controlled the whole game from the centre spraying good passes to either side and defensively made sure there were no slip ups.