OPPOSITION NOTES- Poole Town

Poole Town sit two points adrift of the relegation zone having won just one of their last 15 games in the Southern Premier Division South and coming into Saturday's fixtures having lost their last five games in a row and are in grave danger of going down.

Poole started the season strongly winning three of their first five games and picking up 10 points but their season has totally collapsed since then and fan furor has been placed towards director Andy Rossiter.

After sacking Steve Tully in early January after a run of one win in 10 games, new joint management pairing Joe Lea and Pat Suraci who were poached from divisonal rivals Gosport Borough have only overseen one win in their seven games in charge with six of those being defeats.

Their last four results in the league have been defeats all by 1-0 including losing right at the death against local and relegation rivals Wimborne Town as well as seeing Charlie Davis sent off.

Over a 20 game period in the league, the Dolphins have picked up the least amount of points in the division, three fewer than the next lowest in bottom side Marlow Town which reflects the struggle that the Dorset based side have had.

They have lost 13 of those 20 games, and are the only side in the league to have scored less than a goal a game having scored 17, while conceding 35 goals on the other hand for a negative goal difference of -18.

They are now the lowest scoring side in the league having scored one fewer than Tiverton Town in 20th and two off of Frome Town.

In the reverse fixture at the back end of November, Gloucester City battered Poole Town 4-1 with a double from Jadyn Crosbie with Ed Williams and Stanley Anaebonam scoring on his home debut for the club also getting in on the act.

Josh Staunton drew the scores level on the stroke of half time before Crosbie scored his first of the game just a minute to put the game away the Dolphins.

Up until City's demolition of Winchester last Saturday the reverse match at the TigerTurf was their highest scoring win of the season thus far, and with Poole in such desperate form they will need to pull out all the stops at the BlackGold Stadium.

Their lack of scoring prowess can be seen that the Seaside sides top scorers Gerson Da Costa and Ezio Touray sit on just three goals in the league with a further six behind them on two including the suspended Davis.

One positive for the home side is that neither their home or away form has them directly in the drop zone with them having the 18th best form at home as well as the 18th on their travels as well.

Despite finishing just four points clear of the relegation zone last season, they finished in mid table obscurity having ended the season in 13th, Poole were one of the highest scoring sides in the divison having scored the same as promoted through the playoffs Salisbury Town and will have been hoping for an improved fortunes.

Director Andy Rossiter has set his sights on being in the Football League, but the hosts are as it stands in their current form only heading towards the duldrums of the Southern League Division One instead.

Their lack of goals and defensive nerve at crucial moments has become costly as they would have found a way to turn around the four narrow defeats in a row that they have suffered into picking up points on the board last season, but the unwanted stat of being the lowest scorers in the divison has meant that the side are in a downward spiral.

The home side have a promising manager pairing in 26 year old Suraci and 27 year old Lee but their January move has not worked with Gosport currently sat in 9th place in the table and Poole staring in the face of relegation, they will be needing as much for this to work out with 12 games of the season to go as much as Poole's very disgruntled fanbase.