It's fair to say that Poole will head back to Dorset feeling hard-done-by after taking the game to Gosport for long periods, having an effort cleared off the line and having shot after shot blocked by defensive wall of yellow shirts.
After Boro's Cotton threatened The Dolphins as early as the second minute, it was the visitors who took the game by the scruff. Dan Cann went close after ten minutes and as Poole controlled much of the game Michael Walker saw his goal-bound header hooked off the line.
But for all Poole's dominance, they could not produce a telling result against a defence that had to dig deep to keep them at bay and they were made to pay in two short minutes just after the hour.
A fine move down the Gosport right found George Way unmarked 25 yards from goal and the midfielder comfortably stroked his shot into the top corner of Hutchings' goal.
The cheers from the home crowd had hardly died away when Boro' caught The Dolphins asleep with a quickly taken free-kick inside their own half that found Justin Bennett in acres of space with the task of just running at Hutchings and slotting the ball into the bottom of the net.
As confidence flowed through Gosport, the home side attacked and Poole were very much on the back foot until the last ten minutes when they re-found their form and reduced the deficit with two minutes left when Walker finished off a corner to give the visitors a consolation.
