Another away trip and another saga for the Dolphins as a brace from James Bailey-Pearce helped Poole Town to overcome more dreadful refereeing and poor sportsmanship from Andover New Street. With the fierce slope and a fiercer wind blowing down it the match was always going to be a difficult one for both sides. Poole welcomed James Wood back to the side following his injury and Martin Jones took his place on the bench following his period of suspension.

Poole suffered a major blow on 16 minutes when Wood's injury flared up again and he was replaced by Jones in the back four. The defence, however, continued to look strong and the Dolphins controlled much of the early play. Poole took the lead on 18 minutes - McDonnell delivered a superb pass splitting the New Street defence and Bailey-Pearce ran on to shoot past the advancing keeper. On 36 minutes McDonnell followed up a saved shot to slot the ball home but the linesman signalled (wrongly) that McDonnell was offside. Persistent verbal abuse from McDonnell saw the Poole striker booked and a minute later the referee produced a second yellow card and sent McDonnell off after believing that that he had continued to swear at the referee. Witnesses confirmed that McDonnell was indeed not aiming the outburst at the referee and it does seem harsh that the player received his marching orders. Having said that, it only adds to Poole's poor disciplinary record this season with at least 8 players having been sent off this season alone. This is simply not good enough and it is becoming increasingly rare for any game to finish with 11 Poole players on the pitch. Half-Time: 0-1.

The beginning of the second half saw perhaps the most magical and ultimately the most unforgivable refereeing of the season. At the kick off Bailey-Pearce tapped the ball to Louic Rocher. With Poole now playing down the slope and with the wind behind him Rocher looked up and launched a speculative effort from the half-way line. Despite the keeper back peddling and attempting to save the shot, the ball dropped neatly under the bar and into the back of the net for the most stunning goal of the season. As the Frenchman celebrated his strike with other Poole players the New Street defence stood in a line. hands on heads, in disbelief. Suddenly a defender noticed that the ball had rolled to the back of the goal and under the net and was resting about 2 feet behind the goal. At this point there was absolutely no complaint about the validity of the goal - not from the keeper, referee or linesmen. As the keeper had to walk round the back to retrieve the ball two defenders started complaining to the referee that obviously the ball had gone over the bar in order for it to be behind the goal. This was quite ridiculous - if the ball had gone over the bar how had it managed to stop 2 feet behind the back of the net? To do that it must of had to rebound of something back towards the goal and everyone would have seen that happen - it didn't. Despite the Poole players and supporters screaming at the referee to check the bottom of the net he consulted with the linesman and awarded a goal kick! This decision leaves a particularly bad taste in the mouth - how certain Andover players can stoop so low as to deliberately try to cheat their way to a result is bad enough but yet again the standard of refereeing was reinforced at this level - it is awful. And this report is not about being biased to Poole Town - Andover New Street supporters believed that both disallowed goals were perfectly valid and even supported claims that McDonnell's dismissal was another wrong decision. The whole afternoon was littered with bad decisions - affecting both sides.

On 55 minutes New Street broke clear and levelled the match with a clinical finish but with Poole still winning the midfield battle it always looked likely that the winning goal would come. On 73 minutes a sweet move saw good play between the excellent Matt White and Matty Lovell before Elmes controlled and narrowly volleyed over the bar from close range. Five minutes later and Bailey-Pearce held off a couple of defenders before rifling a right foot shot across the keeper into the corner to secure the points and top a great personal display. The only final scare for Poole came with a couple of minutes to go when a fierce left foot shot cracked against the foot of the post before going out for a goal kick.

In difficult conditions and despite the best efforts of the referee this was a good workmanlike performance from Poole and perhaps the disallowed scoreline of 4-1 would better have reflected the total 90 minutes. Matt White, Bailey-Pearce and Louic Rocher all produced superb performances to help the ten men to another double over New Street.

One final message to Andover New Street No 2 - Dean Austin. It is not big and it is certainly not clever to shout obscenities and make abusive gestures to visiting supporters just because your team score a goal. And if you do feel the need to do it, at least have the sense to make sure you are winning comfortably at the time.

Poole: Randall, Pratt, Lovell, Spalding, Wood (Jones), Rocher, Horlock, White, Bailey-Pearce, Elmes, McDonnell
Unused Sub: O'Donnell, Pidgeley

The recent injury and suspension crisis at the club continued as Tony Avery and James Wood failed to shake off their knocks from the midweek game. The makeshift defence saw Chris Pratt move to centre back and Louic Rocher operating as left wing back.

A bright start from both sides saw some good soccer early on as each side tried to determine the tactics of the other. Although there were few chances in the first half Poole produced a stirring performance with Matty White and Paul Maloney featuring well in midfield. Mike McDonnell again looked very lively up front causing the Vosper defence several problems in the first forty-five minutes. On the stroke of half time a couple of Poole shots were blocked before the ball dropped neatly to Darren Elmes who stroked the ball home to give the Dolphins a deserved lead. Half-Time: 1-0.

Poole continued to impress in the second half but the second goal was to prove elusive. On 58 minutes Colin Randall tapped a Vospers player in the area and the referee awarded a penalty and booked the Poole keeper. To the delight of the Poole support the spot kick crashed off the underside of the bar before being cleared to safety.

On 78 minutes Darren Elmes just failed to connect after a brilliant flick-on from McDonnell but from then on it was mostly Vospers pushing forward for the equaliser. On 79 minutes Randall produced another of several good saves in the match as he turned a shot away from point blank range. The three points slipped from Poole's grasp just four minutes from time when Vospers quickly broke and although Randall got a hand to the shot, the ball looped up and dropped into the net.

This was an excellent entertaining match and after the sorry performance of Tuesday night Poole produced a 100% improvement against the reigning champions. A draw was a fair result on the day as neither side deserved to lose this enthralling battle.

Poole: Randall, Pratt, Lovell, Spalding, Rocher, Maloney, Horlock (Langrish), White, Bailey-Pearce, Elmes (Omoto), McDonnell
Unused Sub: O'Donnell

A disappointing night for Poole Town as they dropped two more points at home to lowly Amesbury Town. With Jamie Holland (35 day suspension), Andy Gater and Matt White all missing the team lacked any sparkle or creativity and although they defended soundly there was very little elsewhere throughout the team.

With only three of the four floodlights working the referee decided it was still good enough to play and after making the trip from Wiltshire the Amesbury players also agreed to play the game. The first half was instantly forgettable with neither keeper threatened at all. Although Poole enjoyed much of the possession they never looked likely to create any real chances and the half finished goalless. Half-time: 0-0.

The beginning of the second half twice saw Poole go close but on each occasion the ball was cleared off of the visitors goal line. On 64 minutes an Amesbury player tumbled in the Poole area and although the referee waved play on the linesman flagged furiously for an infringement. After a discussion between the two officials the referee awarded a goal kick much to the relief of the Poole supporters. The second half continued in much the same vein as the first and after suffering injuries to Avery, Elmes and James Wood Poole Town eventually finished the match with just ten men.

A drab and lifeless game at Tatnam ending in the appropriate way - 0-0.

Poole: Randall, Pratt, Lovell, Spalding, Wood, Omoto (White), Avery (Bailey-Pearce), Maloney, Rocher, Elmes (Cook), McDonnell

A single goal from Taku Omoto on 25 minutes saw Poole Town beat AFC Portchester at Tatnam.

Wednesday night's match away at Esso (Fawley) was postponed due to unplayable pitch.
Saturday's match away at Winchester City has also been postponed as they are experiencing serious problems with their pitch.

Due to the lack of competitive action Poole Town have managed to arrange a friendly against Hampshire Division 1 leaders AFC Portchester. The match is on Saturday 9th February at Tatnam - kick-off 2.30pm.