BOSS Tom Killick is backing his Poole Town players to prove their quality over the course of the league season – with the belief that “the cream should always rise to the top”.

Despite two strong performances against higher league opposition Chippenham Town, Poole were knocked out of the FA Cup on Tuesday – but Killick is keen for Dolphins to carry their heightened intensity into the league.

Speaking ahead of Poole’s trip to King’s Langley in the Southern Premier League South tomorrow (3pm), Killick said: “It can go one of two ways.

“We either limp into the match feeling a little bit sorry for ourselves, where we play nowhere near the levels of the past two games, or we let that sting motivate us to get out and fight for three points.

“I just hope that it will be the latter. Against Chippenham, the players were mentally strong, and very, very motivated.”

Although Poole could not make their dominance count over the two ties with the Bluebirds, Killick wants his side to continue at the level in a bid for promotion by the end of the season.

He added: “They were prepared to push as hard as they could for the performance. I felt our mentality was immense. What we have to do is reproduce that level of intensity, week in, week out.

“If we do that, I feel in cup competitions luck plays a part, very fine margins – it’s not the best teams necessarily that get into the first round proper, it’s not necessarily the best team that wins the FA Cup – everyone knows that, it’s cup football, it’s just what happens on the day.

“But in terms of the league, the cream should always rise to the top in my view. If you sustain proper levels of performance like against Chippenham, then I believe we will get our reward at the end of the season.

“In the league, over the course of all those games, you do get what you deserve. So, we will focus on that and try and keep up our levels.”

Will Spetch returns from suspension but is still carrying a stress fracture injury in his foot, whilst Sean Wright remains a doubt after twisting his knee during the midweek game against Chippenham.