MATCH REPORT- Poole Town 0-1 Gloucester City

A 94th minute headed winner by Dan Ball gave Gloucester City a crucial three points away at a resillient Poole Town side to extend the Tigers unbeaten run to 12.

It was a match lacking in clear cut chances and opportunities with the majority of the 12 combined shots in the match down in Dorset.

City came closest in the first half after a corner was headed onto the roof of the net by Ben Richards-Everton one of only two strikes on the goal in the first half.

The hosts were furious that Richards-Everton was only given a yellow card after a cynical challenge on the half-way line but the marauding centre back was only given a yellow card and he had cover.

That was it in a very dull first half bereft on any quality, with both the Dolphins and Tigers making changes at the half time interval to secure the three points.

Poole had last scored in the league on January 25th and like City were struggling to carve out any chances with both defences coming out on top.

Joe Hanks came on for Brandon Smalley at half time with the top scorer looking to add to his 18 Southern Premier Division South goals for the season.

City rang the changes with Jadyn Crosbie and Dayle Grubb coming for Kieran Phillips and Ed Williams coming onto the pitch but City were struggling to create much against a Poole side who had lost five in a row, and only won one of their last 15 games.

The closest City got was when an Elis Watts looping header was disallowed after Hanks was ruled to have fouled the keeper in the process gone the hour mark to keep the scores level.

The match become more end to end but neither side was able to test the keeper with a number of the shots being speculative and failing to trouble Luke Bell and Ben Taylor in either goal.

It was set to peter out for a stalemate and a draw was a fair result on the balance of play but Dan Ball made sure that the spoils would go to the away side.

Elis Watts floated in a lovely out swinging cross and Ball was left unmarked to header in his first goal for the club at such a pivotal moment to give City three consecutive wins for the first time since the middle of October.

After struggling to keep clean sheets for such a long period, City now have five clean sheets in six games as well as winning three of their last four matches on their travels.

The last gasp winner keeps the pressure on the top two in the table as well as creating breathing space below the playoff places with two huge match ups next weekend.

AFC Totton host Merthyr Town in a battle between first and second, while City host fourth place Walton and Hersham and will be hoping to extend their unbeaten run to a dozen games in the reverse fixture of the eight goal thriller classic back in November.