Captain Whisken in action against Beaconsfield – (Photo Credit: Jon Ashworth / Side of the World)
Dolphins stalwart Jamie Whisken has called on his teammates to learn quickly after back-to-back 4-1 defeats riddled with errors and poor defending.
Multiple mistakes from Poole across the two games were punished by their opponents, leaving Dolphins low on confidence ahead of the trip to Frome tomorrow in the FA Trophy.
Whisken, a near ever-present in the Poole side since joining in 2013, told All Poole Aren’t We: “It’s a tough ask, but this is men’s football and people need to learn quickly in this game.
“It’s a very unforgiving league – you make mistakes, and you get punished with goals.
“That’s obviously what we’re doing at the moment – we’re making mistakes, conceding bad goals. People need to learn quickly.”
Whilst between Whisken and his centre back partner Will Spetch there is over 750 games of experience on show, Poole have a very young squad this season – with Whisken wary of the threat lower league Frome pose.
“We’d love a good run in the FA Trophy – it is second to the FA Cup. It’s the next big one that we definitely want to push on in, and have a good opportunity against playing some good sides.
“It’s nice to go away from home, start afresh and hopefully get the result and kick on again from there.
“We absolutely have to treat Frome like a Southern Premier League side. We cannot underestimate them at all.
“They’ll be a good side, and I’m sure they’ll be good enough to hold their own in this league as well. They can’t be underestimated at all – it will be a very tough game, and for us, it will be like another league game for sure.”
Unfortunately for Whisken he is unlikely to lead the Dolphins out in Somerset at the weekend, with a groin injury he has battled with for most of the season finally causing the centre-back to rest.
“It’s probably as far as I can push it now, and I probably going to need to take a few weeks off.
“I’ve been playing at 60, 70, 80 percent for the last couple of weeks. Playing Saturday, Tuesday, it’s bit too much of an ask. I need to get it right. I can’t keep putting myself through games at 60%.
“It’s not fair on my body or the team. I’m going to have to get it right, and come back in a couple of weeks. I don’t accept that it’s my age, it’s just a niggle that I’ve had.
“We’ve had so many games, and after a year off it’s a shock to the system and a shock to the body, and I’ve just not had time to recover.
I know if I give it a few weeks it will be fully recovered, and I’ll be back to 100%.
“I just want to be 100% percent – I can’t be playing games at 60,70%.”
All Poole Aren't We 