Fans huddle against the rain
This was my first Poole Town away game, at Hamworthy United for
the Dorset Cup final against local rivals Wimborne Town.
The clubhouse was bigger and better than Poole’s, but at £3
a pint (instead of £1.70) was it a price too far to pay? You decide. (I decided
to still have 3)
Busy Clubhouse
The Wimborne fans were very vocal inside and outside the bar
but Poole countered with a chant of “we don’t need no drum!” – I’ll grant you,
not entirely grammatically correct but it did the job
The teams line up
We had twins for lino’s – our side had Danny DeVito whilst
the other side had to try to look around Arnie.
We did worry about Danny’s credentials several times as he
never stayed in line with the last man but insisted on tearing past him – it took
until the 20th minute for us to realise he was actually doing a
bleep test and eventually scored 15.3 – bravo
Wimborne started the brighter with their Keith Lemon
impersonator, the wrist-bandaged number 10 running the show with pace and skill
in ever worsening conditions.
It was he who capped the first 8 minutes of pressure with a
run that sliced effortlessly through Poole and set up their number 6 to put Wimborne 1-0 up –
it was an early goal, but nothing more than Wimborne deserved.
2 minutes later Poole were awarded a free kick 30 yards from
goal and Devlin was handed the ball. He changed his boots for running spikes
and lowered himself onto his quickly created marks before setting off on a 50
yard run up and crashing the ball onto the crossbar.
He and Cann were the stand out players for Poole in the
first half but it was a half edged overall by Wimborne, despite Poole coming
stronger as the half progressed, mainly because of the quality of the Wimborne
crosses which made Poole’s constant over-hit efforts to the far post look very
ordinary.
I did enjoy Burbidge defending a corner shouting “who’s
meant to be defending the short corner” only to be told it was him (back to the
training ground) and a 3 minute period where the ref used the Lancelot set of
balls to make his free-kick decisions which baffled all and sundry but the half
looked like it was fizzling out when Cann pounced on a loose ball
His ball to Preston was slightly deflected by the defender’s
outstretched leg and this helped Preston to decide to take the ball and cut
inside the Wimborne box. Then, just like his strike against Winchester, he
drilled the ball to the keeper’s left and into the corner : 1-1
At half time Killick was looking confident after his
consultation with his spy in the Wimborne camp – the guy was a master of disguise
but we think we may have spotted him…
The Swans fly west in the morning...
Whatever news the Poole manager received, he put it to good
use as Poole came out of the traps the quicker.
Conditions were getting worse by the minute and when Preston
slid in to try to get onto a low cross after 48 minutes it was lucky that the
Red and White army were slow to scatter as he’s still be sliding now had he not
been met by one of the more *ahem* robust members of the 12th man of
Poole
Terrible conditions - even worse recording
Keith (10) was still calling the shots for Wimborne and
Poole just couldn’t seem to get close enough to him to prevent a dipping shot
which the keeper did well to claw away. But 10 aside, the balance of power was
swinging towards Poole
Devlin and Brooks were
gaining a stranglehold in the middle and crosses were beginning to find their
mark. On 65 minutes one such cross was flicked on at the near post and Adam
Kelly smashed the ball into the top right corner to put Poole ahead 2-1
6 minutes later, a Cann
long throw in from the right was to be the undoing of Wimborne. The ball
bobbled to Brooks who, reminiscent of a snakebite-drinking teenager, stumbled,
got up, tripped and staggered through the whole back line before prodding the
ball home for 3-1.
In a post match interview
the Wimborne defence claimed they thought he was having a stroke and didn’t
want to get involved – lesson learnt – play to the whistle
Wimborne heads were down
now but there was still time for the goal of the game on 82 minutes.
Too late for the keeper to start praying....
Adam Kelly picked up the
ball 25 yards out and a Messi-like run saw him bemuse and bamboozle all before
him as he ran through the defence like a ghost before passing the ball into the
bottom right corner of the goal
Final Score: 4-1
Summary Wimborne started
the better and despite Poole’s equaliser, they shaded the first half. Poole,
though, proved too strong in the second half and I hope that despite the
backlog of fixtures, they get some time to enjoy this victory
Man of the Match – Brooks,
Preston, Devlin and Cann all played well, but for the quality of goals in awful
conditions, this goes to Adam Kelly
PS, if Killick is looking
to improve his squad, he need look no further that Keith Lemon – OOOOOSH!!
Panoramic View of the ground
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