POOLE Town renewed rivalries with Salisbury during a topsy-turvy 2-2 draw at the Black Gold stadium – with the two injury-strewn sides making up for a lack of quality with heightened effort.

With Dolphins without a recognised striker available and Salisbury using former Cherries youngster Antonio Diaz – primarily a winger – as a centre-half, there was an interesting dynamic to a game that already boasted the needle of a local derby.

Boss Tom Killick told the Daily Echo: “I wouldn’t say I was pleased with the result. I’m reasonably pleased with the performance.

“We lacked a little bit of quality, even some of our attacking players – Jack Dickson, Luke Pardoe, Luke Holmes – even Luke Burbidge, they would probably say they should have showed a bit more in attacking areas.

“I’ll back them 100 per cent, because I felt they went all in. They gave everything they could, without a striker.

“They had defenders – if they haven’t, it’s fairly negligent with the money they’re spending. It’s a bit bizarre – they’ve got an under 23 team, but came with only two subs.”

The game see-sawed between the two outfits, with Declan Rose missing the best chance of the half shortly before the break.

Rose did the hard work of beating his man, before blasting the ball past the post when it was easier to roll it past a caught-out goalkeeper.

Perhaps buoyed by the near miss, Salisbury took the lead early on in the second half. Sam Ashton reacted quickest to a loose ball in the box, poking it home to give his side the lead.

It was a lead that would only last three minutes, with Rose atoning for his earlier miss by curling the equaliser into the bottom corner.

Salisbury regained the lead in fortuitous and controversial circumstances. An off the ball incident saw Ashton on the ground, with play continuing until the linesman flagged – after much verbal encouragement from the Salisbury bench.

The resultant Charlie Davis free-kick took a wicked deflection off of Josh Carmichael, with the ball careering past Mark Childs into the back of the net.

Killick stated: “I’ve been in and spoken to the referee, and obviously the linesman says he was flagging straight away, which was completely incorrect. Everyone knows what happens – he wasn’t giving anything, and then he was influenced and he gave something.

Poole rallied again, finding an equaliser 13 minutes from time when Luke Burbidge bundled home a corner.

“We showed quite a bit of spirit to come from behind twice, some good mentality, in the eye of the storm in terms of recent results and having Tony (Lee) and Will (Fletcher) injured,” continued Killick. “We have to carry on in the same vein.”