City make light work of bitterly cold dip in the Poole

City bounced back from their disappointing midweek defeat to comfortably beat Poole Town 4-0 at a bitterly cold Tatnam Ground this afternoon. With light snow swirling around the ground the tone of the game was set in the opening minutes when home keeper Hutchings saved at the feet of Tom Smith. Jack Compton somehow side-footed wide of an open goal then Sean Rigg’s 20-yard shot flew just past the post. Poole should have punished City shortly after this from a free header before Compton saw his diving header turned onto the bar by Hutchings. Just when it looked as if the game would reach the interval goalless Compton’s stoppage time corner kick picked out Rigg and his shot found the net through a crowd of players. And it took just two minutes into the second half for City to double their lead, Andy Watkins firing home after Opi Edwards’ initial effort had been saved. On 68 minutes City made the game all but safe when Compton crossed for Smith to head home. In the final minute City were reduced to 10 men when the otherwise excellent referee Mr Buonassisi missed a clear foul on Anthony Straker in the box then showed the City captain a second yellow card after he unwisely got involved in a heated exchange with Devlin who had tripped him. However, there was still time for Edwards to blast home goal number four and cap a great afternoon for the Romans.