BOSS Tom Killick pulled no punches after Poole Town had received a rude awakening at the hands of the Yachtsmen in front of an expectant Tatnam Ground crowd.

An early goal from Adam Barsdell and Darren Powell's late double condemned the Dolphins to their first league defeat for more than nine months.

Poole's proud 28-match unbeaten league record was ended in abrupt fashion as the Islanders upset the applecart in front of a healthy crowd of 184.

Killick said: "A couple of people said to me after the game that now we know what Wessex One is all about but I genuinely didn't see it that way.

"I just thought we were unbelievably poor and would have been beaten by most teams in the league we've just come out of on that display.

"It was just one of those days. We'd won our first two games and, all of a sudden, we thought we were better than we are and seemed very lethargic. We let in a really soft early goal and in a funny way, I thought it might have been just what we needed to kick us up the backside and get us going. But we didn't really show any desire after that and the game just petered out for us.

"They went 1-0 up and were happy to defend and we didn't have any real imagination or craft to break them down."

Killick added: "We had a great chance on the stroke of half-time when Richard Glennister blazed over from a yard out and perhaps if that had gone in, it might have been different in the second half.

"But we were just very poor and although we bombed people forward towards the end and conceded another couple of goals, it was lost by then to a degree.

"I can't really put my finger on it. We played ever so well in our first two games and we just weren't at it at all against Cowes. They did well but were certainly no better than Vospers who we beat on the opening day so it's difficult to explain.

"We will have to play an awful lot better against Poppies on Tuesday otherwise we could get really turned over quite badly."

Poole Town: Spillane, Hounsell, Spalding, Whitley, Cherrett (Reeks, 65), Richardson, Funnell, Woolfenden (Goodbody, 53), Glennister, Phillips, White (Toms, 65). Unused subs: Bayston, Chivers.