Poole Town have returned to the summit of the Southern Premier league after a comfortable 3-0 victory over Chesham United at the weekend, whilst their nearest rivals Redditch United were held to goalless draws both on Saturday and Monday night.
The Dolphins went into Saturday’s clash on a high following their Easter Monday derby victory over Weymouth, and the Dolphins wasted no time in stamping their authority on proceedings on Saturday – taking the lead after just six minutes when Marvin Brooks headed in off the bar from Devlin’s corner.
Brooks’ aerial dominance has certainly been pivotal for Poole over the last week, and in what was virtually a carbon copy of the first goal, Brooks doubled his sides lead on 25 minutes.
Chesham offered very little in the first half. Dave Pearce fired wide in a rare sight of goal for the Generals, and they were perhaps fortunate not to go in 3-0 down at the break when Poole had appeals for a penalty waved away when Burbridge appeared to be tripped inside the box.
Any lingering hopes of a Chesham fightback were extinguished just seven minutes into the second half when they failed to deal with yet another Devlin delivery. This time his free-kick was flicked on by Brooks, and Luke Roberts was on hand to tap home from close range to seal the points for the hosts.
Roberts almost added a fourth shortly after, but his stinging effort was parried away by Chesham goalkeeper Shane Gore. Marvin Brooks very nearly completed his hat-trick late on when – you’ve guessed it – his head met a Steve Devlin corner, but his header was cleared off the line.
A comfortable afternoon’s work for the Dolphins who return to the southern premier league summit on goal difference over Redditch, with two games in hand.
One of those is on Tuesday night, at second bottom Paulton Rovers. Poole will be expecting to extend their lead to three points, but they’ll know they’re in for a fight. Despite their lowly league position Paulton have caused one or two surprises of late, and on Saturday they left Dorchester frustrated after snatching a late equaliser.
The Magpies had looked on course for all three points when Bradley Tarbuck gave them a 68th minute lead with a neat finish into the bottom corner, but Aaron Brown struck two minutes from time to earn the hosts a share of the spoils and leave the Magpies frustrated.
Poole will be hoping their Dorset neighbours can do them a favour when they welcome Redditch United to the Avenue on Saturday.
As for Weymouth, they maintained their faint play-off hopes with a relatively comfortable 2-0 victory over an injury hit Frome Town on Saturday.
Tim Sills saw an effort stabbed off the line by a defender before Ben Thomson dragged the follow up effort wide of the mark in what was the games first real opening after twenty minutes.
Frome then came close to taking the lead albeit in rather fortuitous circumstances when Miller’s corner drifted in the breeze and bounced off the top of the crossbar.
Jordan Copp had a great chance when he was sent clear down the left wing. He had two team mates surging into the box to aim for, but instead he went for glory himself and only found the side netting, much to the dismay of George Rigg.
In truth it was one of only a couple of highlights in what was an otherwise dour and uneventful first half that felt more like a pre-season friendly.
But whatever Jason Matthews said to his troops at half time it clearly had the desired effect, as they put the visitors under intense pressure straight from the restart.
Jordan Copp continued to cause the Robins defence problems. He managed to wriggle his way past a couple of defenders and stand the ball up for Rigg, but the midfielder headed over. However ten minutes into the second half he was on target.
Some neat build up play saw it played to Rigg on the edge of the box, and his deflected shot left Frome’s stand in goalkeeper Sam Teale (normally a defender by trade) completely wrong footed and able to do nothing other than watch the ball bounce over the line to give Weymouth the lead.
That goal finally woke the home crowd up, but it really should have been all square just moments later when Jake Jackson beat the offside trap and found himself clean through on goal, but his attempted chip over the onrushing Matthews went just over the bar.
Despite an on-going back problem, Chris Shephard was introduced to the action and Weymouth began to dominate. He very nearly made an instant impact when he played a perfect through ball through to fellow sub Stewart Yetton, but the striker couldn’t quite get the ball under control, and in the end dragged his shot narrowly wide of the post.
Shephard was showing just how much the Terras had missed him on Monday. He saw an effort of his own charged down by a defender, before playing in Jordan Copp whose effort was parried away by Teale before his follow-up effort was blocked, as Frome desperately tried to maintain a foothold in the game.
Credit to Frome they put in a dogged defensive display and kept themselves in the game, but in the last minute of normal time the Terras finally sealed the points on the counter attack. The ball broke to Copp on the wing and he surged towards the byline before pulling it back for Ben Thomson who smashed the ball into the roof of the net to seal a comfortable win for Weymouth, that just about keeps their play-off hopes alive. But they are still six points adrift, and they really need to win again on Tuesday night in what is now their biggest game of the season, as they welcome fifth placed Leamington to the Bob Lucas Stadium.
A win would see the Terras move to within three points of the top five, but defeat would leave them really needing a miracle. Leamington themselves still have hopes of winning the title, sitting only four points adrift of Poole, so it promises to be a nervy and dramatic evening!
James Spring
