MANAGER Tom Killick likened the defending in Poole Town’s final game of the season against Arlesey Town yesterday to that of two pub teams.

The Southern Premier rivals shared eight goals at Tatnam, including six in the second half, as they brought the curtain down with an eventful dead rubber.

“It was like the Red Lion against the Cat & Fiddle!” said Killick, who watched the Dolphins twice come from behind to emerge victorious against the Bedfordshire outfit.

“At the end of the game, I thought everybody was going to take a turn at taking down the nets and hand me a £3.50 match fee!

“It was a bit low on quality, especially defensively. But it is very difficult when you have been in contention for so long and, suddenly, you have to play two games which have nothing on them.”

Poole, whose play-off aspirations bit the dust following defeat by Cambridge earlier this month, reached the break on level terms after Jordan Chiedozie had cancelled out James Hatch’s opener for the visitors.

Veteran striker Barry Hayles, 42, who plied his trade for a host of Football League clubs and was capped 10 times by Jamaica, restored Arlesey’s lead after 56 minutes.

But goals from Jon Davies, Luke Burbidge and Steve Devlin in the space of 10 second-half minutes put Poole in the ascendancy before Curtis Shaw reduced the arrears, only for Dan Cann to come off the bench to complete the scoring a minute from time.

Killick added: “Some of our attacking play was good, as were some of the goals we scored. It is not easy to be involved in these games when you are trying to get your head around the fact that you aren’t where you want to be.

“I can understand it was difficult for the players and I am not going to be too critical because we did end up winning. It was good in terms of our attacking play but our defending was a bit inadequate at times.

“I was pleased youngsters Billy Lowes and Jack Dickson both started. They are both 17 and didn’t look at all out of place so that was good.

“I suppose it was a reasonable game for the supporters to watch so it wasn’t all bad. But we couldn’t really wait for the season to end as soon as the Cambridge game was over.”

Dolphins: Thomas, Dickson, Whisken, Dibba (Davies, 55), Wannell, Devlin, Brooks, Lowes (Elliott, 55), Chiedozie, Burbidge, Charles (Cann, 75). Unused subs: Davis, Martin.

  • Cellar-dwellers Bashley completed their miserable Southern Premier campaign on the receiving end of a 4-0 defeat at Redditch United.

Bash: George, Gazzard (Brookes, 22), Flint, Ansell, Marden, Strickland, Manders, Soetan, Joyce, Odam, Morris.