The Dolphins record appearance maker Jamie Whisken said ‘it’s good to be back’ as he made his return to action on Saturday after eight months on the sidelines.
The 38-year-old came off the bench at half time in the remarkable 2-1 win over the league leaders Walton & Hersham.
This not only marked his first game for the club since the 26 April, but it also marked his 511th appearance for Joe Lea and Pat Suraci’s side.
On his return back to the side, he said: “It’s been a long time coming, it has been a very long eight months as I’ve barely missed a game over the last ten years, but it felt so good to be back.”
Whisken added: “When Shaq [Gwengwe, striker] and I came on at half time, it was a fairly long half and they had a lot of possession, but we did our job well and managed to hold on.”
Reflecting on beating the side who currently sit top of the Southern League Premier South, the Poole Town captain said: “We were up against it for long periods of the game, the lads really had to dig in and it was a superb result away from home.”
Whisken joined Poole Town in 2013 and made his debut in a 2-1 win over St Albans at Tatnam Ground and was made captain during his first season with the club.
During his time with the club, he has seen the true highs and lows of non-league football such as achieving promotion to the National League South in the 2015-16 season and then finishing 5th place the following season.
Thirteen years after he made his debut for Poole, he has now made over 500 appearances for the club and a remarkable 815 career appearances.
Poole make the short trip across to The Bob Lucas Stadium to face local rivals Weymouth on Saturday.
Looking ahead to the Dorset derby, Whisken said: “We know we’ve got enough in us to beat anyone, we’re a confident side now, we wanted to go to Walton and win and we did just that, we’ll be looking to do the same next Saturday.”
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