The game started brightly with Taunton threatening Poole’s goal within the first minute before Hangar’s dangerous cross just evaded Toby Holmes for a Poole tap in.  On 8 minutes Diaz dribbled forward with skill and was fouled just outside the box but McCarthy’s free kick hit the wall.

There was then a lull in the game with both sides heavily packed midfields countering each other.  On 27 minutes Lowes surged forward but a fractionally heavy touch just allowed Taunton to steal the ball before he could get a shot away.  Straight after this Clarke delivered a quality cross from the left but Holmes header went straight to Taunton’s keeper, Parkes.

A good turn of pace by Ferris threatened Poole’s goal but Whisken was alert to snuff out the danger.  Just before half time a corner found Wkhsken at the back post whose header back in was cleared off the line.  A fairly even first half probably just edged by Poole saw the teams go in level.

The second half commenced in a similar vein although Poole had more chances with Clarke and Thomas firing wide early on.  Tully made 3 changes on 61 minutes to shake things up.  More chances fell for Poole but quality crosses failed to find a Poole player.

On 78 minutes Staunton  made a critical intervention to deny sub Duru who was racing in on goal.  Poole finally broke the deadlock on 83 minutes.  A ball was played in the box and for some reason the whole Taunton defence just froze.  3 Poole players raced in for the ball with Davis getting there first and he neatly chipped the ball in to the corner of the net.  Poole held on for a deserved but tightly fought victory.

My first chance to watch the new look Poole team – I was impressed.  Defensively they looked very solid.  So many individual pieces of ball skills with most players looking very comfortable on the ball.  Although chances were limited Poole created more than Taunton and deserved their victory.  In fact I am not sure Taunton had a shot on target.   A  real test of Poole’s progress lies ahead on Saturday when they face high flying Totton.