Poole Town 1 Margate 0

Vanarama National League South

20 August 2016

After a creditable 0 - 0 draw at erstwhile leaders Weston Super Mare the dolphins returned to Tatnam for their third home match of the season having won the previous two 1 - 0. The same result saw Poole take the 3 points and rise to 6th in the table, above title favourites Ebbsfleet, a brilliant start to the season.

Poole are rapidly acquiring the reputation of smash and grab experts as they were outplayed for much of this match by a physical Margate with a lively attack. The first half was not full of good football although Burbidge created a few chances on the right. Poole's finishing was weak with Gillespie not looking quite so sharp as in earlier games. Margate's finishing was even worse. They probably should have had 2 goals before the break but failed to capitalise on gilt edged chances.

At half time 0 - 0 looked the most likely score with Gillespie going off to be replaced by Grainger. Poole's substitute options looked limited with no Baggie, Brooks or Lindsay and digging deep seemed the order of the day. Poole won a penalty when a defender charged down a shot with his arm. Bizarrely, the penalty spot seemed to detatch itself from the pitch and had to be repaired before the kick was taken. Under heavy sledging Devlin brought a good save from the Margate keeper high to his left. After the kick the penaly spot looked a real mess. A factor in the miss? After that Margate dominated creating chance after chance, hitting post and bar and bringing another great save from Hutch. Poole nicked the points when after interplay on the edge of the box, Grainger found himself with only the goalkeeper to beat and made no mistake, putting the ball low to his right with a decisive finish. Margate came back strongly but as their shot tally reached double figures could find no way to equalise. Whisken saw a straight red for a foul on the edge of the box when the Margate player probably had a chance to go on and score but dolphins held out for a hard earned win.

I thought this was a really good performance and win when you consider the lack of depth in the sqaud and the injuries that we already had coming into the game. Also I thought the referee had a decent game and both of the major decisions seemed correct.

Star Player: Nick Hutchings. No doubt about the star player today. He made two fantastic saves (one in each half) and martialled the defence superbly. Dolphins didn't so much ride their luck as make their own.