MANAGER Tom Killick expressed his “unbelievable relief” after Poole Town had finally ended their wait for a first home win of the season in National South, reports Jack Tanner.

Steve Devlin’s penalty, coupled with goals from Warren Bentley and new loan signing Jeremiah Gyebi, earned Dolphins a 3-1 victory over Weston-super-Mare at the Black Gold Stadium yesterday.

However, despite completing the double over the Seagulls, Poole remained in the relegation zone with fellow strugglers Hungerford and Concord also claiming valuable wins.

Killick was especially delighted as Dolphins are out of action for a fortnight with their next encounter at Bognor Regis on December 23 – the Sussex outfit one place below them in second bottom.

“There was unbelievable relief for us due to the fact we don’t have a fixture for two weeks,” said Killick.

“There was so much pressure on the game and we would have been in a difficult position had we not picked up maximum points.”

Devlin sent Luke Purnell the wrong way from the spot after Bentley had been clumsily taken out by the Weston goalkeeper as the hosts opening the scoring in the 19th minute.

Former Poole loanee Jacob Kane escaped with a yellow card following a reckless challenge on Corby Moore, a decision by referee Robert Massey-Ellis which only served to bemuse Killick.

He said: “It is just complete irony when we had two players sent off for soft fouls last week and you see that tackle and the referee only pulled out a yellow card. You feel like packing up and going home.

“Luckily, it didn’t affect the result. But it is things like that which cause so much frustration.

“We know Jacob, we had him on loan. He is a great player and a great lad and we had never seen him do something like that before. He apologised immediately but it should have been a red card – everyone in the ground could see it.

“How the referee only produced a yellow was beyond comprehension.”

Undeterred by any perceived injustice, Poole continued to control proceedings and doubled their lead in first-half stoppage-time when Bentley seized on a poor pass by a defender before firing past Purnell.

Yeovil loanee Gyebi came off the bench to net a debut goal which pushed Dolphins out of sight before Gethin Hill hit a late consolation.

Killick added: “In the second half, we weren’t fluent and you could tell there were a lot of nerves out there because we all knew how much was at stake.

“Although we didn’t play well in the second period, we defended our goal brilliantly, blocking, throwing our bodies at everything and that showed real spirit, which ultimately got us over the line.”

Dolphins: Hutchings, Harfield, Moore, Spetch, Whisken, Pettefer, Dickson, Devlin, Bentley (Gyebi, 80), Bedford (Balmer, 71), Neale (Leslie-Smith, 55). Unused subs: Sampson, Rees (g/k).