By Will Burton

Poole Town’s leading scorer, Richard Gillespie, is due to make an imminent return to the first team after a four month lay-off with a foot injury.

With the help of fitness coach Tom Webster, Gillespie has made a rapid recovery in recent weeks and was even named as an unused substitute for Poole’s 2-0 Dorset County Cup win over Gillingham Town last night.

Dolphin’s manager Tom Killick heaped praise on his returning striker, “When I signed Richard in the summer I was really pleased to have acquired him.

“I don’t think it’s disputed that he is one of the best strikers, certainly in this league and probably in the league above. We need to be careful about his rehabilitation but I’m hopeful we can get him back out on the pitch in the not too distant future.”

Gillespie spoke of his time on the side lines, “It has been very frustrating especially because we are right up there within a shout of automatic promotion, so it has been frustrating not being available to help the team.

“But in some respects I have been quite lucky because, when I have been injured a lot of games have been called off because of the weather. I’ve been out four months and I’ve only missed 13 or 14 league games, it could have been double that.

“I know that as soon as I do get back there will be a lot of games coming thick and fast so I’ve got to be sensible in the sense that I integrate myself back in slowly, not suddenly playing 90 minutes. You’ve got to be sensible otherwise you put yourself back to square one. “

When fully fit, Gillespie could link up to form an effective partnership with on-loan Gosport striker Justin Bennett who netted twice in his most recent game. “If you’ve got two goalscorers in the team it boosts the place, you know that if I’m having a bad day, Justin will have a good day and he’ll score a few goals. I think we’d be pretty effective up front together.”

Justin talks about the goals for the remainder of the season. “From the first training session in pre season, before we’d even kicked a ball the manager said he wanted to get promote and he wants to win the league. As far as I’m aware that is still the plan.”

Poole’s next game is away to Burnham FC in the league, kick-off 3pm tomorrow.