November 5th may have come and gone, but that didn’t stop Poole Town and Merthyr Town providing their own pyrotechnic display. This game had it all, red cards, mistakes from both sides, and of course GOALS GOALS GOALS! The first goal of the game came inside ten minutes, a poor throw caught the Merthyr keeper off guard, and his poor clearance fell straight to Luke Burbidge who struck the ball first time from fully thirty yards past the despairing hands of the visiting keeper to put the hosts 1-0 up. Before Merthyr could recover, Carl Preston raced clear only to be stopped in his tracks by the visiting captain, unfortunately for the visitors the referee adjudged it to be a foul, and as the Merthyr skipper was the last man, the referee duly showed him the red card forcing the Welshmen to play nearly 80 minutes with ten men. The rest of the first half belonged to the Dolphins, however they couldn’t add to the score line. Michael Walker came closest when his powerful header was cleared off the line. Half time score 1-0.
If the hosts thought that they would be able to dominate the rest of the game, they were sorely mistaken. Merthyr started the second half brightly, despite their numerical disadvantage and played with renewed vigour. On 54 minutes the equaliser came. Merthyr’s Ian Traylor showed Sam Clarke a clean pair of heals before lashing home to make it 1-1, a fully deserved equaliser . However, before the visiting support had time to finish their celebrations, Burbidge was on hand again to take advantage of some sloppy defending to set up loanee Warren Byerley to stroke home to restore the lead.
With the Dolphins now back in the ascendancy , you would have thought that they would have gone on to kill the game off however no one told Merthyr that. On 74 minutes they equalised again, this time Matthew Harris poking home after a lovely move to make it 2-2. With the game finely balanced, the last few minutes were not for the faint hearted. Poole though were not to be denied. With 88 minutes on the clock, six foot five man mountain Michael Walker, rose above everyone to head home the winner. The Red & White Army celebrated wildly. 3-2 the final score and three important points for Poole. A fantastic advert for non league football. Next up for the Dolphins……Wimborne Town!!!
