POOLE Town boss Matt Tubbs was pleased to see his side’s persistence pay off as they battled past Swindon Supermarine, stating: “We got our rewards.”

The game was deadlocked at 0-0 heading into second-half stoppage time at BlackGold Stadium on Tuesday night, when Tony Lee popped up with the late winner.

Swindon saw their chances hampered when former Dolphin Jake Andrews was shown a straight red card for kicking out at Lee early in the second period.

Asked if he felt the goal was coming, Tubbs told the Daily Echo: “If you look at our squad, we’ve got goals all over.

“I feel we’ve got two of the best out-and-out strikers in the league with Tony and Toby (Holmes). When they’re on the pitch, with Pards (Luke Pardoe), Wes Fogden, Harvey Slade coming in, we’ve got goals all over the pitch.

“That’s what we’re going to need to have.

“We looked really solid as well. That’s what I quite liked.

“Swindon caused us some problems, I think they’re a really good team and if it wasn’t for the 10 men, it might’ve been a different story.

“But we worked really hard, on and off the ball.”

For Poole, just getting a game on at Tatnam was notable. Due to a raft of postponements, this was their first fixture of 2024 and just a second to be completed at home since October.

The game did appear to be in serious doubt in the build-up, but Poole got it played, battling the effects of Storm Jocelyn throughout the 90 minutes.

“I said to the lads before the game, with the conditions and saturated pitch, it’s not going to be pretty,” Tubbs explained.

“There was no point just going long, because the wind would just take it.

“So we had to play football, we had to play through the thirds, keep switching the play very quickly and using our ball speed and then using our talented players in the right areas.

“In the end, we got our rewards, with good play down the right, we got our cross into the box and Tony Lee does what he does, scoring the match-winner.”