Bradbury: Hawks patience earned Poole party

The Westleigh Park outfit, who still have two games in hand on leaders Dartford, overpowered 10-man Poole Town 3-1.

Lee Bradbury praised the patience shown by the visitors as they successfully broke down their hosts’ dogged resistance.

‘We had to work hard and remain patient with it,’ said the Hawks boss.

‘It isn’t always easier when your opponents go down to 10 men.

‘The situation makes them work that little bit harder because they know they have to. At the same time you can easily take your foot off the pedal.

‘We made sure we didn’t do that. On probably the biggest pitch in the league we kept moving the ball around.

‘We knew if we did that we would eventually wear them down. I thought it was a great performance by us.’

After an uneventful opening, Poole had goalkeeper Nick Hutchings sent off for felling Alfie Rutherford outside his area.

From the resulting free-kick, Rory Williams fired the Hawks into a 22-minute lead.

But Poole were level at the interval after Andy Robinson was adjudged to have pushed a rival in the area and ex-Gosport Borough striker Warren Bentley fired his penalty past Ryan Young.

The Hawks dominated the second half but didn’t make the vital breakthrough until six minutes before the end.

Williams again was involved with a telling cross converted by Theo Lewis.

An easy Wes Fogden tap-in then confirmed the win.

‘The players rightly deserve the credit for this win,’ added Bradbury.

‘It was one of those games where you can easily let points slip through your fingers.

‘We have got ourselves into a great position.

‘It was a good day for us with all the other results working in our favour.

‘Things are in our own hands and we want to keep it that way for as long as possible.

‘There is a determination in the squad to try to win all our games until the end of the season.’

Meanwhile, Bognor’s hopes of survival were dented by a 1-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Chippenham Town.

Having Calvin Davies sent off for a tackle on Michael Jones on 35 minutes didn’t help the Rocks’ cause before Scott Twine hit the winner soon after the break.

Bognor are second from bottom – nine points adrift of safety.