So here I was, my second game in a week but as there was a 'fiver-ness' about it how could I not make the last minute decision to attend?
The mood in the bar was much buoyed after Tuesday's heroics although when we looked at the team sheet and saw that Gillespie wasn't even in the squad we all feared that perhaps his precautionary substitution was maybe a little more serious than that
Right from the first whistle you could see that Stourbridge were going to be a very different prospect to Banbury as they had pace all over the pitch and gave Poole absolutely no time on the ball
In fact had they brought their shooting boots they could have been 2 up in the first 10 minutes as first their 6 fired just over and then their 7 forced a great fingertip save from Thomas
Gulp
Charles had Poole's first chance on 10 minutes as a cross from the right hung invitingly for him but unfortunately he mistimed his header horribly and completely missed the ball - what I'd give to have Gillespie attacking that kind of chance
After Stourbridge's strong start Poole started to come much more into it but unfortunately the chances kept falling to the wrong player, Dibba, who was unable to convert
The first was from a Devlin outside of the boot inswinging cross that he just couldn't get to and the next was after he reacted quickest to the errant overhead kick from Charles but again he just couldn't quite reach
On 39 minutes Stourbridge showed what they were all about producing a passage of play reminiscent of Leeds in the 70's as they smoothly passed the ball from one end to the other through a dozen or so passes and if the final ball wasn't just too high for their number 2 striker then surely that would have been the goal of the season
Bearing in mind the pitch was so bumpy it often made the ball look like a Mexican jumping bean it was a truly impressive display
Half Time 0-0
The opening 15 minutes of the second half were largely even although Poole were very lucky to have the ref stop play for the injured Dibba just as Stourbridge had broken through and looked destined to open their account
The very vocal travelling supporters were NOT happy and quite frankly I didn't blame them
On the hour mark though their frustration turned to delight as a flick on was pounced upon by their impressive number 2 and he beat Thomas to the ball and skilfully chipped it past him before beating the world record knee skid to celebrate their deserved lead 0-1
That, however, appeared to wake Poole up from their slumber and 2 minutes later Charles was bearing down on goal.
His shot was initially blocked then his second brilliantly saved by the keeper but the ball ricocheted to the edge of the box where super-Dev took aim and smashed the ball into the top left corner
A fantastic finish and to rub salt into the would he even took the knee slide record from their 2 as he aped the celebration towards the delirious RWA 1-1
We all assumed then that this would be the stepping stone to an impressive comeback but in fact the opposite happened
It almost appeared that the team had this one last herculean effort left in them to get the game back to parity but by doing that they just had nothing left to give
Passes became wayward, running stopped and challenges, whilst not dangerous, started to come under the category of "I got there as soon as I could"
It was one such "tired" challenge which resulted in Stourbridge being awarded a penalty in the 73rd minute and it was coolly slotted away to make it 1-2
Sure, Charles did have a glancing header just go wide and a Davies' shot did sting the keeper's fingers but in my opinion we could have played all night and wouldn't have scored
In fact, the longer the game went on the more likely the goal difference was going to take a beating so when the final whistle went , there was almost an air of relief, like when you see a boxing match where one boxer is clearly out on his feet but is determined to get through to the end
Final Score 1-2
Summary : For the first time this season I have some doubts about Poole's chances of reaching the play-offs
Part time builders, plasterer's etc just can't be expected to play 3 games a week on a relentless treadmill of games and be able to keep winning
The weather could be the factor that finally breaks Poole and so something has to be done to protect the players
In my opinion some games are going to have to be sacrificed by playing a weaker side else EVERY game we will be putting out a weak side as each and every one of them are completely shattered
Also, we can't keep relying on Devlin to burst the back of the net to rescue the side and so the season may well depend on how quickly Gillespie can be brought back into the starting line up
Star Man : Burbidge - playing out of position he looked composed at the back and offered real threat when going on his cavalier runs in attack
No comments:
Post a Comment