Why does it ALWAYS have to happen to Pools?

It happens every season, non-League teams embarrassing sides from higher up the football ladder in the FA Cup. But at the end of a frustrating week, Hartlepool United fans have every right to ask: “Why does it have to happen so much to us?”

The latest team to leave Pools with red faces are Vauxhall Motors, 74 places below them in the football hierarchy, who staged a rearguard action to earn a goalless draw at Victoria Park.
And to make matters worse, Pools club captain Richie Humphreys was sent off for the first time in his long career, seeing red minutes from time for a challenge on keeper Scott Tynan that looked a lot worse than it actually was.
Far be it from us to suggest that a referee can be influenced by factors other than actual play, but we wonder if the scrum involving most of the players on the pitch that followed what looked like a 50-50 challenge had anything to do with it.
With one report saying Tynan, who was stretchered off, suffered a suspected broklen leg and another saying it as a rib injury, we’ll leave it to the medical experts to decide the difference between a leg and a rib. We can give them a hint, though – you stand on your leg.
Pools are believed to be considering an appeal against the red card.
Days after the abandonment of their League One home game against Notts County, Pools had just as frustrating a time against their non-League visitors.
There were chances galore for Pools, Anony Sweeney himself having four first-half chances, while three more were cleared off the line – yet, incredibly, it was Motors who had the ball in the net, though their “goal” was ruled out for offside.
Basically, no matter much possession they had and how many chances they created, this really was a rubbish Pools performance.
Mick Wadsworth predictably said that Pools made it difficult for themselves by wasting chances, but he’s confident his team will make round two.
Managers and players can talk all they like about having respect for non-League opponents who always raise their game, it being their Wembley and all that other stuff – but Pools SHOULD beat them, and they should beat them with something to spare.
But they didn’t, so now they face a replay a week on Tuesday, and away games against teams like this really are dangerous.
If they can mess games like this up, what’s it going to be like in the JP Trophy at Sheffield Wednesday in midweek and at home to league One leaders Brighton next weekend?