POOLE Town boss Tom Killick watched his side come back from behind to thrash Mangotsfield – and then backed his charges to gatecrash the play-offs this season.

The dominant Dolphins fell behind to Lee Marshall’s free kick on 24 minutes – United’s first shot on goal in Saturday’s game – and struck the woodwork through debutant Steve Devlin’s rasping drive before the break.

Killick’s men stuttered after the interval and were indebted to Nick Hutchings who twice saved from Mitchell Page.

But they eventually found their breakthrough on 68 minutes with Dan Cann netting at the far post, and the match dramatically swung in Dolphins’ favour.

Defender Rhys Baggridge bagged a brace before the lively Carl Preston capped a memorable fightback with the goal of the day – his mazy run and dipping drive from 20 yards sealing the match late on.

Asked if would back his side to make the top five, Killick said: “I think we’re strong enough to do it, and if we don’t, we’ll only have ourselves to blame.

“We’ve got everything here and I think we should have enough about us as a group to get into the top five – if we don’t I will be bitterly disappointed.

“In a strange way we played better in the first half than the second, we just didn’t take our chances and their goal was comprehensively against the run of play.

“In the second half we started terribly – that gave me serious doubts – but after we scored it became a matter of how many we would go on to get.”

The victory moved Dolphins up to sixth in Division One South & West, just two points off the play-off places.

While Preston stole the plaudits late on, Killick singled out loan star Baggridge for special praise.

He said: “Rhys stood out, not just defensively, but bursting forward from centre-half and giving us that extra bit of impetus as well as defending immaculately. He was head and shoulders above the rest and our best player on Saturday.”

Killick, who confirmed that defender Kane Daysh had returned to Bournemouth Poppies for the rest of the season, also said he had no immediate plans to tinker with his squad.

He added: “You always have to have half an eye out for players, and I would never turn down a player that would significantly improve us, but I’m relatively happy with the squad.”

Dolphins: Hutchings, Gill (Beasley, 58), Emmerson, Baggridge, Walker, Howes, Devlin, Hubbard (Joyce, 64), Spetch (Smith, 40), Preston, Cann. Unused subs: Clarke, Richardson.