POOLE BOROUGH 4 HAMWORTHY UNITED RES. 2
Dorset Premier League ( Report Taken from the Poole Borough Website
A victory against their near neighbours saw Borough end 2008 at the top of the table, with Lee Thomas scoring a brace on his return to Turlin Moor in Hornets colours. But it took a superb performance from former Borough keeper Wayne Robbins to keep the score down as the home side looked to run riot after the break, which set the stage for a fightback by the Hammers in the last 25 minutes which may well have saw them come away with an unlikely point until Joe Toghill made the game safe for the Hornets in injury time.Borough opened the game on the front foot and came close to taking an early lead when Darryl Williams was sent through clear against Robbins, but as he lifted his shot over the visiting keeper Robbins stretched to get his hand to the ball to palm it away.As the Home side continued to control the game both Toghill and Simon Landers saw shots from the edge of the area charged down by a home defender, while the only area of concern at the other end was when Dan Burton had to react smartly to clear an underhit backpass.It was therefore no surprise when Borough took the lead on 35 minutes when Toghill threaded the ball through to Thomas, who beat a home defender before striking a low drive past Robbins from 10 yards out. 1-0.Further Borough pressure saw a Kenny Strong header from a corner cleared off the line while Thomas also came close to increasing the scoreline with a long range effort which went narrowly over.The score remained 1-0 at the break.
However it took just two minutes from the restart for Borough to double the lead when Toghill sent in an angled drive from the left across the penalty area and Williams arrived at the far post to lift the ball over Robbins. 2-0.On 54 minutes in a rare foray forward, the Hammers Gary Williams was denied by a superb challenge by Wayne Crutcher and the resulting counter attack sent Thomas into space but his shot was denied by the advancing Robbins who then recovered quickly to block the resulting strike from Landers as latched onto the rebound before Daryll Williams put the loose ball narrowly over.Robbins was on hand again to make another reactive block on 59 minutes after a high ball in from the right by Williams was met by Landers at the far post but Robbins got across to block the final shot with his body at point blank range. However within the same minute Robbins could do nothing to deny Thomas after Landers had sent him through on goal and he took the ball round the keeper before slotting into an empty net. 3-0.But against the run of play, the Hammers pulled a goal back on 66 minutes when Mike Wynne broke through the Borough back line and rode a challenge from Burton before converting. 3-1.The majority of pressure was still on the Hamworthy goal and Robbins was in action again, to deny shots from Thomas and John Bates and when on 79 minutes, Thomas latched on to a high ball into the area from Bates although his shot from a tight angle beat Robbins it rolled narrowly wide of the far upright.It was the Hammers though that got the ball into the net again six minutes from time, when Dan Watts converted a low left wing cross from 5 yards out to set-up a frantic final few minutes. 3-2.However Borough weathered the storm as the Hammers piled forward, and made the game safe in injury time when a perfectly weighted through ball from Martin Sault saw both Thomas and Toghill through on goal, with Toghill taking the final touch to place his low drive past Robbins. 4-2.
Team : W. Robbins, M. Seal. J. Cole, R. Flower, S. Griffiths, D. Watts, M. Wynne, A, Powell, C. Milesm G. Williams (L. Williams), S. Jones (S. Coakes). Unused Sub S. Lee-Whaley