POOLE Town yet again were left to rue mistakes as they were knocked out of the FA Trophy by lower league opposition.

With the squad decimated by COVID and injuries, boss Tom Killick was forced to start four players carrying knocks away in a 3-2 defeat at Frome Town, as well as naming only three substitutes out of a possible seven.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Killick said: “We don’t want to make excuses because Frome deserved their win, but you can see the scenario we’re in.

“We’ve lost players in the week, lost another key player in the morning, and then we’ve got Dec (Rose) playing who is very unwell.

“On the bench Jez (Bedford) hasn’t really gotten over COVID. It’s always going to be really difficult for us.”

Stand-in striker Will Fletcher nodded home a Luke Holmes cross to give Poole a 17th-minute lead, but 10 minutes later the hosts had reversed the deficit through Kane Simpson and Rex Manning.

Shortly before the break it appeared Luke Burbidge had equalised, only for the goal to be chalked off for offside.

With play restarted, it was not too long before former Dolphin Jon Davies broke through on the counter to make it 3-1.

Burbidge did net what proved to be a consolation for the visitors in the second half.

“It’s difficult because I can’t keep talking about officials, but unfortunately the linesman didn’t really understand the rules,” said Killick.

“When I went to speak to them at half-time, to the referee’s dismay, the linesman’s explanation to me was that Burbs was in an offside position when he received the ball.

“Myself and the referee had to point out the linesman that the rules do say it was when the ball is played, not when he receives the ball.

“But now, it’s very good, because the linesman now knows that, so hopefully now he will have a long and distinguished career as a linesman, or even a Prime Minister!

“The key mistake was the third goal. Okay, we’re not happy we’ve conceded two goals – we’ve gone in front, we’re looking quite bright, we’ve then let in two bad goals.

“We’re a minute away from half-time, away from home – we’ve allowed ourselves a situation where they’ve got a third goal, whereas we come in at half-time at 2-1, it’s a different story.”