BOSS Tom Killick admitted that Poole Town had benefited from a “fortuitous” game-changing decision during their stern FA Trophy examination against North Leigh.

The keenly-contested match was deadlocked at 1-1 after Luke Roberts’s clipped finish had been cancelled out by Kieran Sanders’s leveller for the Millers four minutes before half-time.

But the pendulum swung in Dolphins’ favour following the award of a controversial penalty with North Leigh defender Jon Else adjudged to have handled inside the 18-yard box 10 minutes after the restart.

Portsmouth loanee Jack Maloney rattled home the spot- kick before Mark Jermyn’s 20- yard volley sealed Poole’s victory and a precious £2,700 in prize money.

There was still time for Maloney to have a second penalty saved in an incident which saw Millers defender Zak Westlake dismissed for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity but Killick was quick to acknowledge the impact of his side’s slice of luck.

He told the Daily Echo: “We didn’t play very well and got quite lucky. It bounced up and hit their defender round the top of his arm near his chest. We had a few players near the incident who didn’t appeal for a penalty. It was quite unusual.

“North Leigh’s bench were incensed by it and you could see why they felt hard done-by because it was the big turning point in the game.

“They had caused us plenty of problems on the counter-attack and it was a rather fortuitous way to get back in front.

“After that they lost a bit of discipline and became a bit demoralised.”

Meanwhile, Killick was at a loss to explain why his side had been so slow out of the blocks.

“We seemed sluggish from the start and it was hard to turn it round once that pattern had been set,” he added.

“Mark Jermyn played very well but apart from that we didn’t have too many individual performances that you would say were up to our usual standards.

“We didn’t look at all coherent and struggled to get things going but we should also give credit to North Leigh because they did well. It was an important game for us and in the end we were relieved just to get through, particularly after going out of the FA Cup early.

“It was so vital for us to win in any manner and we look forward to whatever the next round brings.”

Dolphins: Hutchings, Tallack, Martin, Walker, Whisken, Pettefer, Burbidge (Spetch, 79), Jermyn, Brooks, Roberts (Dickson, 64), Maloney (Munday, 79). Unused subs: Lindsay, Manley (g/k).