TOM Killick has warned Poole Town that their Southern Premier challenge will swiftly slip away if the performance level against Dorchester is too often repeated.

Killick was underwhelmed by Dolphins’ display in the 0-0 stalemate with their Dorset rivals on Tuesday, with both sides dropping a place to fourth and fifth, respectively, as a result.

The Poole boss, who saw his side twice hit the woodwork, is adamant that more of the same will not give his team the points return they are hoping for.

Killick told the Daily Echo: “We know we can do a lot better and perhaps more significantly we will have to do a lot better in our performances. It was indifferent at best.

“In terms of what we’re trying to achieve, to draw a game at home is not really what we’re looking to do.

“I don’t think either side had many chances and their goalkeeper probably pulled off the best save of the game from Luke Roberts.

“In the first half, Nick Hutchings didn’t have a save to make and in the second half he made three. If you look at how many saves their goalkeeper made, it was probably more than that so it wasn’t a terrible performance by us and we weren’t overwhelmed or overrun – we just didn’t do very well.

“The result was not dreadful, although I expected us to win the game. Arguably, we still had the better chances so it’s not all doom and gloom from our perspective.

“We were probably at 70 or 80 per cent. That’s hard to take but the positive is normally if you play like that, you lose the game.”

Discussing the standard of the encounter in general, Killick added: “It’s one of those horrible occasions where it’s a local derby and quite big numbers turn up to watch and then the game as a spectacle is fairly horrendous.

“There was not a lot of quality on both sides. There were quite a lot of long balls.

“We probably had quite a few people watching us for the first time and we didn’t made a very good impression.”

Jamie Gleeson came off with a shoulder injury in the 17th minute with the early indications being that the midfielder could have a muscle problem.

Meanwhile, defender Will Spetch was not risked after feeling discomfort in his knee against Biggleswade.

On Spetch, Killick added: “He had a bit of soreness on Saturday and this was a couple of days too early for him.

“At this stage of the season you just need to protect players a little bit and make sure the long-term is looked after. We erred on the side of caution.”