BOSS Tom Killick described Poole Town's defensive display as “inadequate” after they had slipped to a 3-2 defeat at the hands of National South rivals East Thurrock United.

Poole have picked up just one point from their opening two games at the Black Gold Stadium, conceding five goals in the process following their 2-2 draw with Bognor in midweek.

A strike from Abdulai Baggie had put Killick’s side back in the hunt at 2-2 against the Essex-based outfit, adding to Steve Devlin’s first-half opener.

But the visitors found a winner though Montel Agyemang, who netted his second goal of the game on 54 minutes to leave Poole pondering their first defeat of the season.

Killick told the Daily Echo: “One of our strengths has always been that, as a team, we are quite difficult to break down. We are quite difficult to score against.

“That was something which was missing to a really significant degree. Thurrock seemed to create chances at will against us and we seemed very stretched.

“The way we defended as a team was inadequate and it meant they created a lot of chances and scored their goals.

“In the past two home games, we have conceded five goals. That’s bad enough but both Bognor and Thurrock have had numerous opportunities to score other goals – that’s not really acceptable at home.

“You have to be stronger defensively. I am not in any way pointing the finger at my defenders, I’m pointing the finger at the whole team.”

The result means Dolphins have picked up four points from their opening three games, the same as Chippenham, who they visit tomorrow (7.45pm).

Reflecting on Saturday’s defeat as a whole, Killick added: “When you play as badly as that, we would have been absolutely delighted with any sort of return from the game.

“It was just a really frustrating performance and we have to try to do better.

“The only positive is it really does focus everyone’s minds to how we have to improve.”

On the defensive side, Dolphins lost Will Spetch in the second period through injury, in an incident Killick was left frustrated by.

“We were annoyed about that really,” he said.

“It was a premeditated kick to his upper thigh which, nine times out of 10, would have resulted in a sending off. The referee didn’t deem it serious enough for a red card, which was a surprise for us.

“Will has a dead leg. We hope he can recover but he will be a doubt for Chippenham.”

Luke Roberts and Richard Gillespie were both set to have scans on their respective injuries over the weekend and Killick was hoping to have the results this week.

Dolphins: Hutchings, Moore, Spetch (Lindsay, 65), Whisken, Smeeton, Baggie (Bedford, 75), Cooper, Devlin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Burbidge, Lee (Dickson, 66) Unused Subs: Pettefer, Rees (g/k).