MANAGER Tom Killick admitted Poole were not at their best against Southern Premier South promotion rivals Taunton Town, but felt his charges deserved the point they fought desperately to salvage.

Despite only conceding once in their past four matches, Poole quickly found themselves two goals behind after just 10 minutes, thanks to a quickfire double for Taunton.

Killick told the Daily Echo: “I thought Taunton started really well, not only in terms of a real brightness and intent about them, but they also had a shape that we struggled to get to grips with.

“By the time we had got to grips with their intensity and their shape, we found ourselves 2-0 down – probably deservedly so.

“We looked completely out of sorts and probably, out of the game.”

Gethyn Hill and Ollie Chamberlain exploited poor defending to send Taunton into a comfortable lead, and seemingly towards a comfortable win – until Tony Lee’s 35th-minute header gave Poole hope of a comeback.

“We then changed things a little bit ourselves,” continued Killick. “From then on, in that second period of the first half, we started to claw our way back.

“I did feel that scoring the goal when we did gave us that little lifeline.”

That lifeline appeared wasted when stalwart Will Spetch was dismissed early in the second half for a second yellow, but Dolphins rallied again in search of an equaliser.

They would be left waiting until added time, when Lee again popped up to spare Poole’s blushes and grab his 11th goal of the embryonic campaign in a 2-2 draw.

“In the second half, I must admit I feared for us when we went down to 10 men,” explained Killick.

“I thought it was such a difficult situation – going down to 10 men is always difficult, but when you’re trying to chase the game, you often get picked off.

“We were always going to spend a lot of the latter stages of the game sending balls and set plays into the box. We ended up getting one at the death. It was just about deserved for the spirit we showed, particularly when we went down to 10 men.”

Dolphins: Childs, Rose (Fletcher, 77), Jackson, Spetch, Whisken, Moore, Bartlett (Carmichael, 70), Holmes (Bedford, 46), Burbidge, Dickson, Lee

Unused subs: Wright, Caze