Following a strong performance against Weymouth a week before the Dolphins produced another good performance but went down to two-nil to a much better Havant & Waterlooville side.

Havant looked very quick and strong from the start and the Poole defence were stretched several times in the opening quarter of an hour. It was Poole who produced the first clear cut chance when Paul Harding was clean through but his volley was caught comfortably by the visiting keeper. Two minutes later the Southern Premier side broke away and a right wing cross was headed onto a post before being cleared by Neal Spalding. The first goal came on 38 minutes, an exquisite chip over Randall from about 25 yards. Half-time: 0-1.

Manager O'Donnell made wholesale changes at half time and only Matty White remained in the Poole line-up. Despite playing some nice football at times Poole never really threatened the Havant goal and on 83 minutes the visitors broke away, rounded the keeper and tucked the ball away to make it 2-0.

The first home pre-season friendly saw a crowd of approximately 150 turn up to see Poole take on a strong Terras side at Tatnam.
It was also the first time that supporters could appreciate the new fourth permanent barrier side plus the hard standing which has been laid in recent weeks. The ground is really coming together now and hopefully further progress will be made through the season.

This was a highly entertaining game and Poole Town more than matched their Southern Premier neighbours. Tommy Killick returned to the attack for Poole and along with Jamie Holland caused many problems for the Weymouth defence. Spalding, Fletcher and Woodward looked superb in defence and Matty White and Gary Morris produced some neat work in the midfield.

Although chances fell to both sides it was a header by Spence direct from a corner on 25 minutes which finally separated the two sides.

Poole: Elliot, Whatling, Spalding, Woodward, Fletcher, G.Morris, White, Rocher, M.Morris, Killick, Holland

Player News

Although early indications were that Matt Lovell would be playing this season, he has now made the decision to hang his boots up and will be sadly missing from the Poole squad this season. We wish him well.

Poole Town opened up their pre-season fixtures with a visit to local neighbours Holt United.
Whilst there were a few familiar faces within the squad there was also a lot of new players on show with manager Brian O'Donnell promising all those who attended pre-season training a run-out.

Regular faces included Neal Spalding, Colin Randall, Carl Woodward and Gary Fletcher with Jamie Holland also returning to line-up in the Poole colours. Despite Jamie's transfer to Lymington & New Milton at the end of last season it now appears that the young winger wants a return to Poole and indeed he signed papers for the club after the match. With a 70 odd day ban coming into force at the start of the season Poole supporters will need to catch Holland while they can as he will not be able to play for the club until around the start of November!

Ex-Poole player Paul Harding also turned out for the Dolphins and produced an impressive display for the entire 90 minutes. Mark Gaskell (ex-Swanage T&H), Gary Morris, Paul Ainsworth (Australian) and Ross Elliot (keeper) were among some of the other players on show.

Poole Town led 2-0 at half-time with goals from Gaskell and Fletcher (neat back heel after a back heel from Holland) and despite Holt pulling a goal back in the second half, a great volley from Harding gave Poole a fairly comfortable 3-1 win.

A good workout for the squad but a much sterner test lies in store when Poole take on Weymouth at Tatnam this Wednesday.

Fixture News

Another pre-season friendly has been arranged. Poole will now travel to Bridport on Saturday 10th August - kick-off 3.00pm.

As expected, due to the FA Vase match against Christchurch on 7th September, the pre-season friendly against the same side has been cancelled.

Fun Day News

If anyone has any secondhand books they would like to donate to a book stall at the Tatnam Fun Day then please either drop me an e-mail here or contact the Event Secretary Pauline Bean here.