MANAGER Tom Killick felt circumstances had dictated the final score after witnessing Poole Town’s first setback of the campaign – a 5-2 defeat at Stourbridge.

Dolphins shipped goals either side of the interval and were three down by the time Richard Gillespie scored with nine minutes to play. ‘Mr Goals’ then added his 10th of a prolific season in injury time but it proved a mere consolation.

However, Killick thought his charges had enjoyed the better of the first-half exchanges and called into question the hosts’ opening goal, claiming it was “clearly offside”.

He said: “Strangely enough, we played well in the first half. Stourbridge created very little and we looked good going forward but they got a goal which should never have been allowed to stand.

“Once we gave away the second, that pretty much ended things for us. We went for broke and got picked off but the final score was heavily influenced by the approach we were forced to take.”

Dolphins: Hutchings, Brooks, Spetch, Cummings (Byerley, 65), Whisken, Pettefer (Rowe, 80), Cane (Elliott, 52), Devlin, Gillespie, Preston, Cann. Unused sub: Thomas.