Poole Borough Football Club

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Alex Gunn
Battling perfomance on the wing and also got back in support of the defence.

Borough Man of The Match : Alex Gunn

Borough paid the penalty for a below par performance and were dealt a further blow as midfielder Shaun Clarke was stretchered off the field with a suspected broken leg on the stroke of half time.

The Hornets started brightly and an early chance fell to Matt Bircumshaw, but he shot wide. Borough had a let off on 18 minutes when they were unable to clear a long drop kick from the home keeper, which allowed an attacker to get behind the defence but he shot wide with the goal at his mercy.

The Rockies, however opened the scoring two minutes later as they broke quickly from a Borough attack which left visitors defence flat-footed. Keeper Paul Maitland was able to block an initial attempt, but the rebound fell to Daniel Carter, and although Jamie Townsend got to the shot he couldn't keep it out.

Dan Herrington came close shortly afterwards as he broke through on the left, but his shot was saved by the keepers legs.

With Borough struggling to string their passes together on a bumpy pitch, the home side created the majority of chances. It took a fine save from Maitland and an excellent Townsend tackle to maintain the score line at the interval, which came after Clarke went down following a challenge in the centre circle and the game was delayed while an ambulance arrived to attend to him.

HT 0-1

Borough came out after the extended interval and had their best spell, creating a number of chances, the best when Scott Smith shot narrowly wide after being teed up by Alan Fooks.

Shaftesbury, however made the game safe mid-way through the half with two goals in five minutes as Borough were undone by the home sides swift attacking play. The first came when a low cross from the left was tapped in at the near post by Lee Russell. The second saw Borough's defence stretched again this time down the right and the resulting centre was steered by Mark Cooper past Maitland.

Borough had to defend in depth as the home side looked to increase their lead, but broke out in the final minutes and James Morrell was unfortunate to see a well struck shot deflected for a corner, while James Edwards also came close with two chances in injury time.

Borough : Maitland, Edwards, Shanley, Clarke (Ricky Smith 46), Hebdon, Herrington, Gunn, Bircumshaw, Scott Smith, Alan Fooks (Morrell 84) , Townsend (Chappell 68).

Manager's Quotes..........

Winning assistant manager Frank Armstrong said: "We played some really good football and the difference for us was that the chances actually went in for a change. To be fair we could have easily been 5-0 up at the interval without being in anyway detrimental to them. "Our keeper did not have a thing to do and I must say that I thought the referee had an outstanding game. We have never had him before but he was excellent in the way he handled the players and let the game flow."

Poole boss Peter Morrell said: "There was not a lot which we could take from the game really. We lost our two centre-halves before kick-off and we had to field two reserve-team players. At the moment we just have not got a big enough squad to cope. "We worked hard in the game but in the wrong places and at times we were running around like headless chickens we did not keep our shape at all. Paul Maitland did well, especially when it came to dealing with crosses. Fifteen-year-old Ricky Smith also showed good promise when he came on.