STALWART Will Spetch accepts that the old guard in Poole’s dressing room must take responsibility for the club’s sub-par performances last campaign, before stressing that added experience could only be a good thing next season.

Dolphins have already added three new faces to the squad, with former Cherries midfielder Wes Fogden bringing knowledge of four promotions to Poole.

Similarly, goalscorer Toby Holmes returns to the BlackGold stadium fresh off the back of winning the Southern League Premier South with Taunton, whilst popular goalkeeper Luke Cairney is seen as a strong influence in any changing room.

The long-serving trio of Corby Moore, Jamie Whisken, and Spetch have played over 1000 games combined for Poole. Defensive duo Spetch and Whisken formed the basis for Poole’s last title success, with Spetch recalling the make-up of the squad back in 2016.

When asked by the Daily Echo if the elder statesmen of had an extra sense of responsibility for last season’s mid-table finish, Spetch responded: “Without a doubt.

“I think there's the older ones like me, Whisk (Jamie Whisken), Corby (Moore), we certainly need to sort of grab hold of the youngsters and get us round together at times when things are going wrong.

“Obviously, I don't think there has been enough of that as a group this year.

“So hopefully next year we can sort of bring in a couple more maybe experienced players, just add sort of like five or six experienced players makes a hell of a difference, really.

“Which if you look at four or five years ago, you've got Michael Walker, who played centre-half for us for years.

“He was a big, physical player.

“Then you had Whisk, me, then Carl Pettefer, you had Steve Devlin, so you always had five or six very experienced players.

“So this year we've probably been a little bit inexperienced, but that's sort of the process football may be going along the lines of nowadays. We just have to see really.

“But look at the potential of players that we’ve got in the squad, which I think is really good.

“It's just trying to get the balance right where you have some experience and some really good young players coming through the ranks.”