ADIE Arnold admits Verwood Town’s “naive” nature is enough to drive him round the bend – despite it helping to secure a last-ditch leveller at Bemerton.

Potters plundered a point in the fourth minute of added time at Western Way when Bemerton’s ex-Christchurch and Poppies goalkeeper Max Frampton upended frontrunner Jack Lovell in the penalty area.

Former Cherries apprentice Matt Oldring did the honours from 12 yards to secure a creditable 1-1 draw against the seventh-placed hosts.

But while Arnold was full of praise for his players’ never-say-die attitude, he conceded his raw rookies would need more nous to make a greater impression on the Wessex League’s top flight.

Arnold told the Daily Echo: “It came very late but the equaliser was thoroughly deserved on the back of a really good performance.

“In the first quarter of an hour we created three really good chances which we didn’t take and we let them back into the game.

“Fair play to Bemerton, they know exactly how to play at this level and have two very sharp, experienced strikers. They reacted to a second ball and got their goal.

“But as frustrating as it can be for a manager, the beauty of the fact we are quite naive is we also do not know when we are beaten.

"The lads just keep plugging away and we got our rewards against one of the better sides in the division.

“Playing like that at somewhere like Bemerton sums up our season really and it is the inconsistency that does my head in. There is no in between with us, we’re either brilliant or shocking.

“In one way, it shows how far we have come and perhaps we (the management team) expect too much, but I want to keep on pushing.

“We could do with a couple of experienced players to push us forward and give us that knowhow to kill off games or win ugly, but they are so difficult to find without money.”

Potters: Sim, Evans, Molyneaux, Thoroughgood, Kelly, Dyer (B Satterley, 75), Gajic, Oldiring, Lovell, Saxby, Hill (Rutten, 85).

  • The rest of the Wessex League programme was wiped out by the weather which left Christchurch, Poppies, Hamworthy United, New Milton and Ringwood kicking their heels once more.