Poole inflict heavy home defeat on Rebels

Slough Town

Slough Town

0
Poole Town

Poole Town

4
Brooks (9), Gilkes (30), Devlin (pen 42), Burbridge (82)
League Attendance: 309 Adam Martin
Poole Town delivered a harsh lesson to Slough on Saturday, winning in extremely convincing fashion to move back to the top of the Southern League, Premier Division.

Joint manager Neil Baker said afterwards that he thought his side were “not quite at the races” against a strong, determined Poole side, and the writing was on the wall early on with left winger Harrison Gilkes shooting just wide with a low, angled drive in the fourth minute.

Not long after, full-back Lewis Lindsay shot wide after a surging run, but the visitors did take the lead with nine minutes played, with Gilkes pulled the ball back from the left and Marvin Brooks slotted the ball past Luke Williams.

Gilkes was proving to be a constant menace down the left for Poole, and with regular right-back Sean Fraser playing at left-back on his 100th appearance, Slough seemed ill at ease in defence. The winger skipped past a series of challenges far too easily, before almost beating Williams at his near post.

Poole were completely in control with Slough gifting the Dorset side possession too easily, and it seemed a matter of time before they notched another goal, with the Rebels only able to offer a wayward Tom Moran shot in response.

Williams kept Poole at bay again with a fine save from a Brooks header, and could only look on as another header from Jamie Whisken rebounded off the crossbar and over.

Poole doubled their lead on 30 minutes, and again Gilkes was the threat which Slough could not nullify. He raced clear after winning possession, skipping past the challenge of Guy Hollis before running all the way through to beat Williams with ease at his near post.

Slough struggled to gain any momentum in the match, and conceded a penalty in the 42nd minute which was comfortably dispatched by Steve Devlin to give Poole a 3-0 lead – although the foul on Gilkes was just outside the box.

Slough’s only chance of the first half was turned over the bar from close range by Reece Yorke, the big defender unable to get the ball on target from Fraser’s cross.

The Rebels, with an uphill task in the second period, had a good spell and limited the visitors to few clear chances, although Williams was required to make a good save as he ran out to meet Joe Quigley, who was played through on goal, with Fraser also doing extremely well to get back and apply pressure to the striker.

Poole were dangerous on the counter attack all afternoon, and on another break, Quigley fired into the side netting, whilst right midfielder Luke Burbridge almost set up a fourth goal, but the effort was well blocked.

However, Burbridge got his name onto the score sheet with eight minutes remaining to complete the scoring, as he scored with an overhead flick which looped in from an acute angle.

Few games will be quite as tough as this for the Rebels, who did not force Poole goalkeeper Nick Hutchings into a single save all afternoon.

Poole Town Lineup

Nick Hutchings, Lewis Tallack, Lewis Lindsay, Michael Walker, Jamie Whisken (c), Carl Pettefer, Luke Burbidge, Steve Devlin (Charlie Davis), Joe Quigley (Luke Roberts), Marvin Brooks, Harrison Gilkes (Richard Gillespie). Subs not used: Neil Martin, Nick Thomas.

Rebels

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