In a game that will not last long in the memory the Dolphins took their 7th point of the new campaign from a 1-1 draw with newly promoted Evesham United. In fairness a draw was probably about right with neither side able to create many clear-cut chances.
Being a Bank Holiday weekend there is just a short break until we make the 122-mile trip to Bolitho Park to take on Plymouth Parkway on Monday KO 3pm. For quite a while last season Plymouth were involved in a relegation fight alongside ourselves. However, an upturn in their fortunes in March and April saw them take 18 points from their last eleven matches including the 3-1 home win against us. This took them up to 13th place in the final league table, 4 points from the drop zone.
They have had some tough fixtures at the start of the season and will be pleased with the four points that they have won. Although the chastening 6-3 opening day away defeat to Walton & Hersham will have hurt them badly. Since then, they have lost to Weymouth and beaten one of the promotion contenders Gloucester City (with a 100th minute strike from Jacob Smith) at home and on Saturday they drew with Basingstoke 1-1 away. Basingstoke played 73 minutes of that match with 10 men after Scott Armsworth was shown a straight red card in the 17th minute. The Parkwayimmediately took the lead through Ryan Brett but Billy Upton earned the home side a point on 83 minutes.
The Yellows are suffering something of an injury crisis at the moment with three first team regulars sidelined, possibly for the next few weeks. One of them is their marque signing Andrew “Rocky” Neale who we have come up against on many occasions as he has gained experience at several west country clubsincluding Truro and Taunton Town. The other players currently not in the squad are Alex Rutter and Shane White.
Prior to the match on Saturday Pat and Joe spoke about the need to be more efficient in defence, particularly defending crosses into the box. Perhaps with that in mind they went with Ryan Cambell, Josh Staunton, Corey Jordan and Harry Lee at the back. This seemed to work well as we restricted Evesham to just a couple of half chances until they equalised in the 73rd minute. Harvey Slade was again very hard working and industrious in midfield supplying the front line of IK Hill and Shaq Gwengwe with some precision passes.
In fact, it was the 24-year-old winger IK Hill who looked the most likely to break the deadlock. He joined us in the summer after an impressive individual season last campaign recording 31 goal contributions in 45 matches. He started his career in the youth ranks of Winchester’s academy before making his first team debut in 2017. After a spell with Westfield in the Isthmian South-Central Division, the winger returned to Winchester in 2022 and became an instant key player for the Citizens. Last season, Hill found the back of the net on 22 occasions and also recorded nine assists over the course of the campaign in a Winchester side that suffered relegation. Many Poole fans will remember his brace that he scored against us in the 3-2 win at Tatnam last season.
There is bound to be a great following for the team as we look to better the disappointing 3-1 defeat we suffered at Bolitho Park last March. We have come a long way since then and we can have every reason to be confident of a positive outcome.
Enjoy the game
Neil Wellington.
