Interview: Disparaging Supermarine comments served as ‘incentive’ for Poole victory

Tom Killick revealed a few disparaging remarks from Swindon Supermarine’s dugout helped to fuel Dolphins in their 5-0 FA Cup rout.

The away side had started brightly but struggled to convert posession into meaningful chances – failing to draw a save out of Mark Childs in the opening 45 minutes.

Speaking to All Poole Aren’t We, Killick revealed: “We heard that they said ‘we were the worst side that they’ve played’ and another comment we heard was that ‘mentally we were soft.’

“So that was a little bit of an incentive for us, to prove a little bit of a point.

Ironically, instead it was Supermarine who demonstrated a poor mentality – practically giving up after Poole’s second, allowing Dolphins to run up a large scoreline.

“It got to the point where they threw in the towel a bit,” Killick stated.

“We exploited that. You have to break their spirit first.”

Killick, who was full of praise for his opponents prior to the game, remained steadfast in his admiration for the Wiltshire outfit despite the negative comments.

With only one point and one place seperating the two sides in the league table, Killick is predicting the FA Cup tie to have little bearing on the two league fixtures to come.

“They’re a very, very good side,” Killick continued. “I can see them finishing high up the league, and in our league matches it will be all on again.

“When we play them again, it will be another tough encounter and our win will just be forgotten, I’m sure.”

The Poole boss had previously labelled Supermarine’s frontline of David Pratt and Conor McDonagh as ‘one of the best in the division’ – and despite the duo firing blanks, Killick remained impressed with the pair.

“They’ve got two very, very good forwards – I thought Conor McDonagh today was very clever in his movement, gets on the ball really well.

“I also felt that Dowling was an excellent player, I really was impressed with him. They’ve just got good players all over the pitch.”

Dolphins will next face off against Supermarine in just over a month’s time, when they make the trip up to Wiltshire in early October. Swindon will next visit the Black Gold at the end of January.