BOSS Tom Killick was left to rue shipping goals at key moments as Poole Town slipped to a 4-0 defeat against National South rivals Bath City at the Black Gold Stadium on Saturday.

Dolphins were rocked by Sean Rigg’s opener in first-half stoppage-time and left with a mountain to climb after Andy Watkins had doubled the Romans’ lead three minutes into the second period.

Further efforts from Tom Smith after 68 minutes and Opi Edwards in added time gave the scoreline a flattering look, with Bath finishing with 10 men following Anthony Straker dismissal for two yellow cards.

Defeat left Poole three points adrift of safety with Concord Rangers – the team directly above them – having two games in hand.

Killick, who had presided over a stunning 1-0 win at then-leaders Dartford just seven days earlier, told the Daily Echo: “It was more of the same – a very good away performance followed by a dreadful home performance.

“It wasn’t a great game but it was quite even in the first half. Both teams had chances but they scored in first-half injury-time so we were a little deflated.

“We came out with some purpose to try to get back into the game but conceded a terrible goal after just a few minutes.

“We had to take risks and, as often happens in that scenario, you either get back into it or get picked off and we got picked off.

“It frustrated me because we spoke at half-time about the need to get back into it but not to concede a second. We needed to attack with a bit of purpose but make sure we were solid defensively.

“The goal just before half-time gave them a real lift and when we still felt we had a good chance of getting something from the game, we conceded again.

“People will look at the scoreline and the last half-an-hour and think we were well beaten. I accept we were from a scoreline point of view but the key were the goals before and after half-time because in the first half we could have been ahead.”

Dolphins: Hutchings, Moore, Smeeton, Spetch (Aihevba, 26), Whisken, Pettefer (Otudeko, 63), Gillespie (Walker, 72), Devlin, Constable, Brooks, Bentley. Unused subs: Balmer, Rees.