POOLE Town were held to a goalless draw by Hungerford on Saturday afternoon with neither side able to break the deadlock.

Steve Tully stuck with the same starting eleven from the 3-1 win away to Basingstoke the previous Saturday.

Luke Nippard returned to the bench after being out for ten months with a long-term back injury and young 16-year-old Pietro Almieda was on the bench for the first time.

Before kick-off, there was a minute’s applause for Peter Stroud who recently passed away, he was a long-serving volunteer at the club.

The match got underway with both sides timid in their approach early on.

Hungerford had the first real chance of the game after their number nine Dawid Regula was played through one on one with Cam Plain.

A fantastic save from the face of Plain to deny Regula kept the scores level.

The Dolphins had their first effort on goal just after the half hour mark as Toby Holmes launched a long throw forward for Ezio Touray to run onto.

Touray managed to get a shot away in the area, but his attempt was well saved by the Hungerford number one.

Despite glimpses of promise from both sides, the half died down into a lull with neither side looking like they were going to open the scoring.

The half came to a goalless close with defences on top in the encounter.

The second half commenced with a bit more intensity to it as both sides grew into the game.

The away side went close on the 60th minute as ex-Dolphin Alefe Santos played a great ball to the back post which was headed over by Regula.

It took until the 65th minute for Tully to make his first change as both Dario De Luca and Rafa Ramos were introduced.

The first real talking point of the game arrived in the 83rd minute as Poole captain Jamie Whisken was shown a second yellow card for a challenge deemed to be late.

With the Dolphins down to ten men, Poole had to stay resilient at the back to ensure they got something out of the game.

With Hungerford looking to push for a winner, it was actually the hosts who looked more likely to win it late on.

The referee produced a second red card in the dying moments of the match, this time for Hungerford defender Ramarni Medford-Smith for denying a counterattack.

The game came to a goalless close with neither side being able to get the better of their opponent.

It was a gritty, hard-fought performance leaving the Dolphins in 8th place on 23 points after 16 games played.

Next up for Poole is another home match next Saturday as they face Hanwell Town.