Poole Borough Football Club

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Alan Fooks
Posed the visiting defence problems all game.

Borough Scorer : Sean Hebdon 39, Scott Smith 42, Alan Fooks 50.
Borough Man of The Match : Alan Fooks

Borough continued their good start to the New Year, but although the Hornets dominated the first hour, keeper Paul Maitland was forced to make some crucial stops as the Rockies attempted to fight their way back during the final stages.

Borough created a string of first half chances and demonstrated some excellent approach play, whilst restricting their opponents to a single strike on goal. Both Alan Fooks and Scott Arnold went close with headers whilst Fooks also saw a shot on the turn saved by the visiting keeper.

However it took until the 39th minute for Borough to open the scoring as Sean Hebdon arrived late and unmarked at the far post to head in an Alan Fooks corner. Scott Smith doubled the score just before the interval threading his low shot from inside the area though a packed defence and just inside the post.

HT 2-0.

The Hornets pressure continued in the second period and Alan Fooks collected the third goal five minutes into the half, heading a deep cross from Gary Fooks past the advancing keeper. With Borough looking likely to run riot, Shaftesbury's gloveman made two excellent saves at close range, to thwart Alan Fooks and Smith.

The Rockies however pulled a goal back on 64 minutes as Borough lost the ball at the back and Gary Currie ran through to score. This gave the visitors a shot in the arm and for the first time in the game they put Borough under a degree of pressure which they maintained despite going down to 10 men after defender Stuart Randall was sent off for violent conduct.

Although both Smith and Alan Fooks saw chances to finish the game go wide, it was Maitland who made the points safe with three fine saves in the last 10 minutes to deny Shaftesbury any chance of recovery.

Borough : Paul Maitland, Sean Clarke, Tony White, Sean Hebdon, Paul Getley, Jamie Wilson, Alex Gunn (James Morrell 81), Scott Arnold (James Edwards 63), Scott Smith, Alan Fooks, Gary Fooks. Unused sub : Shane Milne.

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

Winning boss Peter Morrell said: "That is now two weeks in a row that we have played well. The game was very exciting and I think it was a fair result in the end. They had a lad sent of for stamping which was a bit unfortunate but he had to go. For 60 minutes we showed what we can do - we are just trying to get on a run now.

Rockies' assistant-manager Frank Armstrong said: "We were doing very well in the first half until the last five minutes when sloppy defending allowed them to score two quick goals - before that we had matched them. "They then got a deflected goal to go 3-0 up which was a hit unfortunate but after that we got one hack and then it was the story of our season all over again. We had six chances to win the game in the last 15 minutes hut failed to take them". "You cannot give any team in this league a three goal head start. As for the sending off, Neil Coates the manager) and I are bitterly disappointed with Stuart because there was no need to do what he did - the referee was left with no choice."