BOSS Tom Killick saw Poole maintain pole position in the Southern League and then all but resigned himself to losing key midfielder Steve Devlin for three games.

Cherries loan star Josh O’Hanlon bagged his sixth goal in five matches to earn the Dolphins a 1-0 win over Premier Division rivals Biggleswade at Tatnam yesterday.

But Poole’s fifth successive victory came at a price when Devlin received a straight red card for a poor challenge on Waders’ Evan Key midway through the second half.

And with an appeal seemingly unlikely, Devlin will miss the final three games of September – league clashes against Arlesey and Weymouth and the FA Cup first qualifying round tie with Bradford Town.

Killick told the Daily Echo: “Steve is a competitive lad and goes into challenges at quite a speed. If he mistimes one, it can look a little ugly. From my first view, I thought it was unnecessary.

“It looked a little high and didn’t look a very good tackle. If it turns out how I first interpreted it after I have seen it again on video, I don’t hold out much hope of there being an appeal.

“We have been on the wrong end of these sorts of tackle and have rightfully made a fuss about it so I think it is important to recognise that it shouldn’t happen when we have committed one.”

O’Hanlon, who had netted a hat-trick in Poole’s 7-0 demolition of Frome on Monday, capitalised on a defensive error to score the only goal after just five minutes.

Killick added: “Performance-wise, I felt it was on a par with Frome and it is not an exaggeration to say we created as many chances but just didn’t convert them.

“After the sending off, it looked like it was going to be one of those horrible days when you drop points because you have been wasteful but we managed to hang on.

“I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that it was a really good performance and, if our finishing had been better, we would have been looking at a similar scoreline to Frome.”

Dolphins: Hutchings, Tallack, Martin, Walker, Whisken, Jermyn, Burbidge, Devlin, O’Hanlon, Gosney (Preston 80), Roberts (Emmerson, 75). Unused subs: Davis, Lowes, Munday.