Page 24 - Yate Town FC v Poole Town 161121

enlarged to 44 clubs (to accomodate Kent League clubs who had left it too late to resign the previous
season) and split into Premier and First Divisions. However, Premier status only lasted a year as Poole
finished 21st and dropped into the First Division.
1961 – 1991 - Runners up in 1961/62 a point behind Wisbech Town only gave Poole another single
year in the Premier. Poole had another good FA Cup run in 1962/63, reaching the First Round proper
and held Watford to a 2-2 draw at Vicarage Road, but lost the replay at Poole Stadium (in front of
11,155). In 1964/65 Poole finished 3rd in the First Division, behind Hereford United and Wimbledon and
were back in the Premier. Poole reached the 1st Round proper in 1966/67, and met QPR again at Loftus
Road, Rodney Marsh scoring all three as Poole go down 3 -2
Poole enter the Anglo Italian Cup for semi-professional clubs in 1981, and go all the way to the final,
losing 4-1 to Modena in Italy. The FA Cup 1st Round proper is reached once more in 1983/84, holding
Newport County to a 0-0 draw in front of 5000 at Poole, but the Welshmen were able to bury the Poole
bogey with a couple of goals from John Aldridge to put Poole out 3-1 in the replay. Poole won the Dorset
Senior Cup for the 11th time in 1989 and were runners up in the Southern Division in 1988/89 but
survived only two years in the Premier, finishing 17th then 20th in 1991/92.
1992 – 2000 - In 1992 Nicky Dent, bought for a club record fee of £5000 two years earlier, is sold to
Dover for £8000, another club record. In 1994 Poole are forced out of Poole Stadium, their home for 61
years and begin a ground sharing arrangement with Hamworthy United, and just avoid relegation from
the Dr Martens (Southern League), finishing 20th out of 22 in 1994/95.
Then the club have its worst season as they go through 1995/96 without a win, gaining just 1 point from
a 0-0 result against Bashley, to avoid the worst ever playing record. Final position was: Played 42, Won
0, Drawn 1, Lost 41, Goals for 17, Goals against 188, Goal Difference -171, Points 1. The club drop out
of the Southern League, and made to leave their Hamworthy Home at the same time. Holt United of
Dorset League Division 2 give The Dolphins a home and are accepted into the Hampshire League
Division 1. In 1997 the slide is halted, although only a 12th place finish, the club wins the last 10 games
and have hopes of success in the near future. 1997/98 Season. Firstly, Poole win the Dorset Senior Cup
for the 12th time, beating their former hosts Hamworthy United 2-1 in the Final. Secondly, Poole win
the Trophyman League Cup Final 5-0 against New Street. Finally, finish 3rd in Division 1 and just miss
promotion to the Wessex League. 1998/99. Poole become the first team to win and retain the
Trophyman League Cup after beating New Street again, 1-0 in the final. The Dolphins finish runners up
in Hampshire Division 1, just 3 points behind champions Alton Town. Although runners up, the
Hampshire League is restructured and with the creation of the Hampshire Premier League, Poole Town
are effectively relegated 'down' to Hampshire Division 1 due to insufficient ground standards. The
playing record speaks for itself over the recent past seasons under Trevor Parker and more recently
under Peter Moore / Paul Morrell / Dean Mooney & Brian O'Donnell + Tom Killick's team. Ground
problems have seen many knock backs with promotions denied + demotions. 1999/2000 Poole Town
gained that much sought after step up to Hampshire Premier after winning the Division One
championship. The support both home and away has been tremendous with average gates well over
the 100+ mark, with 200+ at times and this has continued to the present time with many supporters
giving their own time to help improve the lot of the club in many ways.
2000 – 2008 The new millennium saw the club continue to stride forward but further silverware
remained just beyond their grasp despite becoming a force in every league they played in. Starting in
the Hants Premier division the Dolphins finished runners-up in 2000-01, 5th in 2001-02, 4th in 2002-03,
and 3rd in 2003-04. Re-alignment of the leagues for the 2004-05 season saw them join the newly
formed Wessex Division 2 and gain promotion at seasons end finishing runners-up to Lymington Town
FC, the two clubs being 21 points ahead of the rest of the pack. 2006-07 Poole joined the top flight of
the Wessex and gained a credible 8 in the much tougher league. For the 2006-07 the division was
th
renamed Wessex Premier and Poole started promisingly again but their challenge for honours faded with
a series of poor results over the Christmas period, however they recovered to finished
strongly in 4 . In this period there has been some good cup runs too. Poole reached the
th
Trophyman League Cup quarter-finals in both 2002-03 and 2003-04 and the latter year also
saw the Dolphins reach the semi-final of the Dorset Senior Cup losing 1-2 to Gillingham.
They repeated the feat again in 2006-07 losing the semi-final to Sherborne by the same
margin. 2005-06 saw them get to the Dorset Senior Cup final but the gods contrived to deny
them success against Hamworthy on the night. Their first year in the Wessex in 2004-05 saw
them reach the semi-finals of the League cup against all the odds losing to Thatcham Town
over two legs, and the following season they reached the semi’s again, losing out to Andover
that year. The club moved to its current home at Tatnam Farm during this period and
continual ground improvements saw the erection of a stand and bar and refreshment
facilities and great improvements to the club house and area in general. Poole led the way