Wimborne made hard work of beating lower league Poole Borough, through goals from Tom Clarke and Gareth Barnes in the first half, against one from their opponents in the second.
Alex Browne rested several of last Saturday's team. The line-up was Al Walker-Harris in goal, Sam Lockyer, James Wilson and Dan Haysom at the back, Kev James, Steve Whitcher, James Stokoe, Tommy McCormick and Ben Thomson in midfield, and Gareth Barnes and Tom Clarke up front. Lee Chudy, Liam Green, Steve Moore, Alex Browne and Nick Hutchings were on the bench.
With opponents two leagues below them, this should have been an easy game for Wimborne, and for a while it looked like it was going to be. In the second minute a fierce volley from Ben Thomson was only kept out by a superb save by the Borough keeper. Then, on six minutes, Thomson collected the ball from deep in his own half, brought it down the wing and played the perfect through ball to Tom Clarke who clipped it over the keeper to put Wimborne ahead.
Gradually Borough came into the game, and began to have more of the possession, but Wimborne always looked dangerous coming forward and on 24 minutes James Stokoe intercepted a Borough pass and quickly played it through to Kev James who took it into the area before squaring to give Gareth Barnes an easy finish at the far post.
Borough had the ball in the net on 34 minutes, only to have the goal disallowed for offside, and continued to have more of the ball, but two minutes before the break Thomson again set up Clarke who rounded his man and crashed the ball into the crossbar.
Within a minute of the replay Borough pulled a goal back with a low shot which took a deflection off a Wimborne leg. For a while they put the Wimborne defence under quite a bit of pressure , but then the game became something of a stalemate with Borough having most of the possession but unable to score, and Wimborne also unable to create many scoring opportunities.
On 58 minutes The keeper dived at the feet of Stokoe as both went for the ball, and came off worst. There were some heated exchanges and Stokoe was booked, though it looked more like a case of brave goalkeeping than evil intent.
Wimborne had a few opportunities: Tom Clarke headed just over from a Thomson cross, and Stokoe hit a fierce Volley but too near the keeper. With two minutes to go there was another fracas, this time in the Wimborne area, when a scramble for a loose ball resulted in a tangle of bodies. When the dust had settled, the ref consulted his assistant and proceeded to show red cards to Wimborne's Al Walker-Harris and Borough's Sean Gallagher. Ben Thomson made way for Nick Hutchings to take over in goal and after 5 minutes of added time the ref brought to an end to an uninspiring evening in a nasty cold wind, and Wimborne were though to the final against Gillingham.
