Aim for Wessex Prem Champs - Promotion and a new home
on 10/08/09 by Andy Starmore
Reigning Wessex League Champions Poole Town got off to a winning start again on Saturday as the campaign for 2009/10 got under way with a narrow 1-0 victory over plucky New Milton Town.

The Dolphins, who ran away with the title last time around, but were not able to gain promotion because of the FA’s decision to say no to the Tatnam ground being accepted to the next step in the non-league pyramid, fully deserved their opening day victory.

It may have only been 1-0 but Poole, although not at their best, were too good for the visitors.

And manager Tommy Killick was relieved that their season began with an important three points in the bag.

“A win was very important because expectations are so high so anything other than a win would have cast a shadow over things,” Killick told Pitchside.

“It was a bit closer than we would have liked but we’re just glad we won the game.

“We had an awful lot of possession but we didn’t create countless opportunities. We had enough to have won it comfortably though.”

And it was veteran midfielder Taffy Richardson who popped up with the winning goal five minutes into the second half. Killick, who has had a footballing relationship with his good friend Richardson for many a moon, once again praised the combative midfielder for his sheer will to continue playing at this level of football.

Killick said, “Taffy’s got a knack of scoring crucial goals at crucial times and that was a crucial one for us today.

“I was pleased with our concentration levels and we didn’t really give them any opportunities at all I don’t think.

“The only slightly disappointing thing is that we didn’t score more than one goal but to be fair to New Milton they came here as a very well organised team.

“They were very intent on taking something from the game and I thought they defended very well.

“They stayed with us throughout the game and at the end we couldn’t wait for the final whistle.”

Killick has always held back in terms of going overboard on stating how good his team is, and typical of the modest successful manager he once again understated just how good Poole Town are.

It’s crystal clear that the Dolphins are the team to beat once again but Killick believes there are other outfits out there with the potential to squander Poole’s chances of a second Wessex Premier title on the bounce. He added, “I’ve said before that there’s a number of clubs that have strengthened so it’s going to be a very difficult task for us to win it again.

“Last season during the second half of it teams were upping their game against us which made things very difficult but this season we’re going to get that from day one.”

The age old question of what is the priority for Killick’s troops this season was summed up in an instant from the Dolphins gaffer.

“From our point of view the league is the be all and end all because hopefully we’ve got Branksome Rec to move into.

“Technically we could win the Vase and not win the league so then we wouldn’t get promoted so the league has to be a priority by a big distance.”