FRUSTRATED Tom Killick branded Poole Town’s 2-0 defeat to Staines Town one of the worst displays of his 14-year tenure.

Second-half goals from Andre Odetola and Andy Ali gave Staines – who had lost four of their opening five Southern League South games – a deserved victory at the Black Gold Stadium.

Killick admitted an injury crisis had played its part in the lacklustre showing with the likes of Marvin Brooks, Steve Devlin and Richard Gillespie not in the squad.

But the Dolphins boss, who named assistant Taffy Richardson among his substitutes, insisted his team had to improve regardless.

He told the Daily Echo: “It has to be one of the worst performances I’ve seen in 14 years. No disrespect to Staines but they are a developing side who will probably be in the bottom three.

“We weren’t better than them. They worked hard and did very well.

“Their goalkeeper pulled off a couple of very good saves towards the end and they created some opportunities when we chased the game.

“It didn’t help that once again, I was without six players who probably would have been in the starting line-up. That is my fault because it keeps being the case.

“We’re not Weymouth and we haven’t got 25 players. Suddenly, you are asking youngsters to come in and it’s hard for them.

“It seems to be every week we are without six people and it’s not helping the situation.

“All six of those players would probably have been in the starting XI so that is causing us problems. The side we are putting out is not good enough.

“When I look at the season so far, against Hartley Wintney we were poor, against the Metropolitan Police we were poor, against Staines we were poor, against Salisbury we were workmanlike, against Basingstoke we were workmanlike, against Wimborne we played well. It’s not good enough.”

The closest either side came to an opening goal in the first half was when Makhosini Khanye hit the top of the crossbar with a free-kick from the right side of the box.

Odetola broke the deadlock just after the hour when he finished off a quick counter-attack by stroking calmly into the left corner.

Poole had shouts for a penalty turned down and Will Spetch – who had been shifted into an attacking role – was twice denied by superb saves from Swans stopper Manny Agboola.

Staines had further chances of their own and Ali made sure of victory when he squeezed the ball under keeper Luke Cairney in stoppage time.

As a result of the defeat, Dolphins dropped two places to eighth in the table.

Killick’s men have the chance to get back to winning ways when they travel to Wessex Premier Shaftesbury in FA Cup first round qualifying on Saturday.

Dolphins: Cairney, Alawode-Williams Whisken, Spetch, Smeeton, Moore, Pettefer, Bedford, Clarke, Leslie-Smith, Balmer (Grange, 54). Unused subs: Jamison, Dickson, Richardson, Hutchings (g/k).