WHEN Taunton Town lifted the Southern League Premier South title at the weekend, there might have been a sense of what could have been for Poole Town stalwart Will Spetch.

Ahead of the first COVID-curtailed season, the Somerset side had approached Spetch with a deal better than his terms with the Dolphins.

Ambitious Taunton utilised their strong resources to recruit from further afield, bringing in players from Wales and Dorset, including local hitman Toby Holmes.

Spetch, a Southern League Premier champion with Poole back in 2015, rejected the offer, deciding to remain at the Black Gold Stadium.

Reflecting on the potential move, Spetch told the Daily Echo: “That Rob Dray (Taunton manager) rang me up back before the 2019/2020 season.

“But, I’ve got a young family, I’m 31 now and I’ve got a physical job.

“I can't sit in a car for two and a half hours and drive down to Taunton.

“It wasn't an awful lot more money than what was on here really, at the time.”

Rather than regret the decision to join the Somerset side who have gone on to win the division after two curtailed seasons, Spetch instead is looking to use Taunton’s promotion as encouragement for next campaign.

When asked if he now was further motivated to earn promotion with Poole, Spetch responded: “Without a doubt.

“I think when you're younger, if a better team come in for you, you probably just jump at the chance.

“Obviously I still want to win things.

“From what I can remember, this is the first season where I've not ever had anything to play for.

“We've always been in a playoff shout, play-off finals, or winning the league. So in 14 years, that’s not a bad number really.

“But, if we can get some additions next year, I think we can certainly push on and go for at least a play-off spot.

“But look at the league. If Hayes stay in, if Farnborough stay in, there's a lot of big teams that are still going to stay in the League now, so we will see what summer says.

“I think if you sort of narrow the season down into probably the last five or six games, I think it has probably been fairly good in the last five games.

"But if you look over the duration of season, we've been very poor.

“If you then look at teams like Taunton, who in hindsight aren't much better than us or much worse than us.

“We drew with them twice this year and they've gone and won the league.

“So really, if you look at Hayes - Hayes are by far the best side in the league, and they've not won it. So it's just a funny old league, but we'll just see what happens next year.”

Aside from a brief sojourn with Sutton United in 2014, Spetch has remained with the Dolphins, racking up enough games to become Poole’s record appearance holder.

The 31-year-old confirmed he was intending to stay at the Black Gold Stadium next campaign.

“I haven’t got any plans on moving on to anywhere else,” continued Spetch. “I’ll carry on and try and play as long as I can – I’ve still got a few years in me yet.

“I've got a lot of respect for Tommy Killick. I’ve played for him for 14 years. I’m good mates with Mickey (Hubbard, assistant manager) and it's a great bunch down there.

“So if we can keep the same group of people as we’ve got now, and maybe add five or six additions to the team, I think next year I think we should improve a hell of a lot.”