Poole Borough Football Club
Season 2003/04

THE SEASON

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Add your comments on the match.

Adam Nash
Made some crucial saves to
keep Borough iin the match.

Conditions

Cool, bright but with a strong breeze. Playing surface slippery but remained firm.

Borough Colours

Gold & Black shirts, Black Shorts, Black Socks

Borough Man of the Match: Adam Nash

Borough's indifferent away form continued as they fell to a single goal defeat at Blandford United with a penalty early in the second half separating the sides.

Despite dominating the first 20 minutes, Borough were unable to convert their early chances. After five minutes Alex Gunn stole down the right and Kieran Campbell got his head to the resulting cross but home keeper Hannam was well placed to collect.

On 13 minutes Gunn sent in another low cross from the right which Alan Fooks flicked on at the near post and Merrell did well to get to the ball but lifted his shot over the bar.

However as the half progressed the Royals began to make some headway and on 27 minutes a good forward pass found Peter Knight in space but Adam Nash came out smartly to block the shot. Nash did well again five minutes later to parry a shot low down by his right hand post following a corner.

Half Time 0-0

Blandford should have taken the lead four minutes into the second half as another well-worked move ended with a poor shot, which spooned over the bar. However three minutes later Scott Orchard misjudged a tackle as a home forward cut in from the left and the referee had no hesitation in awarding a penalty, which Richard Knight stepped up to convert.

Borough pushed forward looking for a way back but Blandford defended well to restrict the visitors chances while looking to hit the Hornets on the break and Nash was called on to make another crucial stop after a wayward shot was deflected goalwards by Orchard.

Alan Fooks came close on 75 minutes with a glancing header, which was palmed away at full stretch by Hannam. Into the last five minutes Hannam was equal to a long range shot from Gary Fooks and was also hand to collect a curling free kick from James Edwards.

With the referee playing seven minutes of injury time Borough piled forward looking to salvage a point. Martin White came close as he stole into the box to head a cross narrowly wide of the post, and Tony White ran in from the left but his shot went narrowly wide leaving the Royals to collect only their second home win of the season.

Borough: Nash, Herrington (Clarke 63), T.White, Orchard, Hebdon, G.Fooks, Edwards, Gunn, Campbell (S.Russell 57) A. Fooks, Merrell (M.White 83).

Managers Comments ..............................

Poole boss Tony White said: "We were very poor. In fact, it was probably our worst performance of the season so far. We have no excuses because they deserved their win. We had a lack of quality on the day, particularly in the final third where we struggled to create any chances. Saying that, the penalty they got did not look like one from where I was but to be fair the referee gave it and we can have no complaints.

"If you look at our results over the season we have dropped the majority of our points against teams in the bottom half. We seem to be able to get up for the big games but when we play struggling sides on tight pitches we tend to have a few problems."