RELIEVED Tom Killick felt a “terrible” defensive lapse had resulted in Poole Town making hard work of seeing off plucky Paulton Rovers on Tuesday.

Dolphins moved top of the Southern League with a 2-1 triumph over the winless backmarkers at Tatnam.

Killick’s men endured a testing first half as Luke Burbidge had a cast-iron penalty waved away before Marvin Brooks saw a goal questionably chalked off.

A rocky patch followed for the hosts after the restart and although Luke Roberts netted against the run of play in the 61st-minute, lively Rovers substitute Josh Morgan-Williams quickly cancelled out the effort.

However, when Burbidge was brought down by Aaron Brown in the box, former Cherries striker Alan Connell slammed home the penalty for his first Poole goal with 12 minutes to play. Brown was given a straight red card.

“Paulton certainly didn’t come here to roll over and die,” said Killick. “They really gave it a go and were aggressive throughout.

“It was another team we found hard to break down. We played some reasonable football but just couldn’t get the breakthrough.

“We did feel very aggrieved at half-time. Anybody in the ground would have given the penalty apart from the referee and then we had a goal disallowed for an offside that was not even marginal, it was just ridiculously incorrect.

“I don’t know whether that contributed to an indifferent spell at the start of the second half or whether Paulton gathered some reserves of energy and figured out how to deal with things better but they had a good spell.

“Sometimes, you have to give credit where it’s due but we came back strongly.

“The biggest disappointment was conceding the goal. Don’t get me wrong, their lad took it really well but it was terrible defending on our part which made the game more difficult.

“I think we would have gone on to win by three or four had we not let them back in it.”

Dolphins: Hutchings, Tallack, Spetch, Walker, Whisken, Pettefer, Burbidge, Devlin (Dickson, 63), Roberts, Brooks, Moore (Connell, 53). Unused subs: Lindsay, T Holmes.