News: Four new faces, but Poole boss Killick is fuming

FOUR SIGN: But Killick wasn't happy.

Poole Town boss Tom Killick revealed four new signings after his side’s 4-3 friendly win over Christchurch this weekend, but blasted his players for a lack of focus in the game itself.

Diminutive forward Alex Baldacchino joins on dual registration terms, while Luke Burbidge joins from Hamworthy United and 18-year old right back Jordan O’Donnell joins from Salisbury City. The re-signing of Karim Lamalli completes the quartet.

Baldacchino spent the closing months of last season at Tatnam Road after notching 28 league goals in 35 games for Wessex League strugglers New Milton Town while also being signed for Havant and Waterlooville in the Conference South.

Killick said: “Alex joins us on the basis that if Havant & Waterlooville require him, then that’s Conference South football and he would have to give that priority, and I understand that.

BALDACCHINO: Dual registered

“Effectively it will be the same arrangement he had for most of last year with New Milton, but hopefully he will feature regularly for us until such time he is called on by Havant.”

Burbidge signs after a 22 goal Wessex League haul with Hamworthy United last season while O’Donnell has featured for youth teams at Portsmouth and Eastleigh as well as Salisbury.

Other trailists include Lee Chudy – the striker scored twice in the second 45 minutes on Saturday after netting 11 times in 15 leagueappearances for Hamworthy last season. Goalkeeper Michael Weatherall, who comes from the same youth side as O’Donnell, featured, as well as Bournemouth Poppies wing wizard Fawzi Saadi.

Though even after the influx of players, Killick admitted he was still looking to strengthen his frontline before the season starts with Clevedon Town at home on August 18^th.

“We were a little bit low on numbers but we’re gradually building it up – we are still short in a couple of areas but a one or two things might be happening this week.”

“We have got some good options up front. Alex Baldacchino is a very good player, Karim has got huge ability, Lee Chudy has shown up very well – I’ve got to have a word with Lee but I’m hopeful we’ll sort something out.

“We’ve got Luke Burbidge who can play out wide as well, but I probably want to bring someone in who has played at a higher level to give us a real focal point.

“It’s difficult because those types of players are in very short supply, which we’ve already found to our cost over the summer, but we’ll endeavour to bring someone of that calibre in over the next few weeks if we can.”

As for the game, Killick was less than impressed as Graham Kemp’s plucky Christchurch side took the lead three times. Chudy’s brace eventually sealed victory for the hosts, but couldn’t prevent the side receiving a tongue lashing from their boss.

“It was a disappointing day for us, we were awful, it’s the worst we’ve been. We were sloppy, lazy and careless, just a really below par performance – the goals we let in were laughable really.

“Our attitude was all wrong today – we had Yeovil Tuesday, Eastleigh Thursday and then Christchurch, and the players approached it in completely the wrong manner, you could see that in the performance. It was unacceptable.

“The difficulty is I know we’ll be better in our next game against AFC Bournemouth because the players will like playing in that game, but your attitude has to be right week in week out, you can’t just pick and choose and perform in the big games.

“All of them disappointed me, and apart from two or three of the younger lads, none of them came out with any credit.

“It was a disastrous performance from our point of view – with all due respect to Christchurch we should be controlling the game from start to finish and winning it convincingly, so we’re upset about that and I hope the players are upset – we’ve got to knuckle down with our training this week.

“We have Bournemouth and Salisbury next, but for me Parley is our next test because I want to see what our attitude is like in that game.

“Are we just going to turn up and stroll about like we did against Christchurch? We won’t accept that again, so Parley is a game I’m looking forward to see how the players react and see what we’re made of that day. Attitude is the be all and end all and that’s what we’re going to look at.”