ASSISTANT boss James Wood felt an enforced 18-day break had been a contributory factor as Poole Town crashed to an unexpected 3-0 defeat at Shortwood United.

Goals from Mark Pritchett, Tim Haddock and Luke Gullick condemned Dolphins to only their second away reverse of the season and their first since October.

Wood said: “We weren’t happy with the performance and didn’t feel the level had been as high as we expect. We hadn’t played for a while and it showed.

“We pride ourselves on playing at a high tempo and the lads are a fit bunch. But there is no substitute for playing games.

“The lads looked heavy legged and a yard off the pace. Although the effort was there and they were trying to do the right things, match sharpness was lacking. We know it is something we have got to try to rectify as quickly as we can. It is not an excuse but we felt it had a huge bearing on the outcome.”

Wood and boss Tom Killick had run the rule over Shortwood during their 1-0 midweek defeat at Wimborne, a match which had been played in monsoon conditions.

“It was difficult to judge due to the conditions but we felt we could beat them, providing we played somewhere near our top form,” added Wood.

“But something our players have got to get used to very quickly is that teams are going to raise their game against us. We have to take it as a compliment.

“The Shortwood team we played was very different to the one we had watched at Wimborne. All credit to them because they worked hard for their victory.”

Dolphins: Hutchings, Baggridge, Spetch, K Emmerson, Walker, Howes (Brooks, 55), Burbidge (Kelly, 58), Devlin (Dibba, 65), Byerley, Preston, Charles. Unused subs: Richardson, Clarke.