Poole Town vs Gloucester City – Match Preview
The Dolphins had to wait until the 97th minute to be sure of taking all three points against a very hard-working Berkhamsted at Tatnam on Saturday in front of an expectant crowd of 658. The visitors took the lead with a penalty in the 66th minute which seemed to ignite our lads who responded with a significant increase in the tempo of the match. Ayo drew us level on 72 minutes before Shaq converted a 90th penalty to give us the lead, which was increased on 97 minutes, again by Shaq giving us the 3-1 win.
We now turn our attention to the mouthwatering top of the table clash against second placed Gloucester City at Tatnam ko 3pm. Our records so far this season could not be closer, we have both played 31 matches with 18 wins, 7 draws and 6 defeats. Gloucester are in second place by virtue of scoring 4 more goals than us, 70 to our 66.
Form
Dolphins DWLWWW 2nd
We have now won three on the trot, taking 13 points from our last six games.
Gloucester City LDDWWDW 3rd
City have not performed well on the road so far this season. They have won just five of their 15 away matches, Hungerford, Weymouth, Bracknell, Basingstoke and Gosport. Giving them 20 away points against the 41 they have earned at home.
We lost both matches against them last season, the 4-1 away defeat in November was followed by the 1-0 reverse in February. Unfortunately, we didn’t fare any better earlier this season when we went down 3-2 at the KMM Energy Stadium in October.
They come into the match on the back of the very impressive 5-0 home win over Wimborne Town with Kane Simpson taking the match ball with another hat-trick, taking his total for the season to 17. City manager, Williams brought in the highly experienced striker, who has secured Southern League promotion at the end of each of the last two seasons. He was signed following his recent departure from Taunton Town.
Gloucester decided on a change of manager at the end of last season and turned to someone they know well, Dafyyd Williams. He was with the club in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons before joining EFL side Newport County as Assistant Manager.
City were extremely disappointed to lose the highly rated midfielder Harry Pinchard to National League South, Dorking Wanderers this week. Despite a huge effort to retain the player he left and made his debut for his new club on Tuesday evening against Eastbourne Borough. However, they have moved very quickly to replace him by bringing in the highly rated Cuba Mitchell. The 20-year-old is a versatile and technically gifted performer who was born in Birmingham and cut his football teeth within the Academy ranks at St. Andrews. He was snapped up by Sunderland in 2022, where his progress continued before he was handed a first professional contract two years later. He will most likely make his debut against us on Saturday.
City have three championship based loanees in their ranks currently. Defender Zack Ali is on-loan from Bristol City, until the end of the season, Jamal Mohammed is on loan from West Bromwich Albion and Coventry City have recently agreed to extend the loan of Rylie Siddall, again until the end of the season.
This is definitely one not to be missed, we all know how much the home support means to the lads.
Enjoy the game
Neil Wellington.