Pools bounce back after weekend robbery

Hartlepool United have been at the receiving end of a perfect example of swings and roundabouts football over four days as they followed up Saturday’s appallingly unlucky defeat at Colchester with a win at Tranmere that required just a touch of luck.

They were full value for the win at Prenton Park, but had to rely on an own goal from home keeper Peter Gulacsi, who punched Leon McSweeney’s corner into his own net 14 minutes from the end.
But Pools were always the better side in a game which never hit the heights, the first half summed up by the fact that Tranmere didn’t win their first corner until the last minute.
Gulacsi was making more and more saves as the second half wore on, one from sub James Brown a real top drawer effort.
But it was the keeper who gifted Pools with the winner they deserved as he failed to cope with McSweeney’s driven corner.McSweeney is claiming the goal as his own, but would it have gone in without the punch?
Temporary/stand-in/caretaker manager Mick Wadsworth had said before the game that he felt the players would be determined to put Saturday’s disappointment behind them, and not for the first time he was proved right.
“I’m delighted with the way the players stuck to the task,” he told the club website.
“It wasn’t the most free-flowing game, but if any football was being played it was us who played it.
“We were the better team, we had the most opportunities and a strange goal when it came.”
It’s a result and performance that gives Pools a great at a vital time. The Colchester defeat was a big blow after such a long journey and such a good performance in Essex, so to win at Tranmere and produce another away clean sheet in the process was the perfect response.
Now Pools can put the League to one side this weekend as they face Yeovil at the Vic in the second round of the FA Cup.
The visitors lost 2-0 at Bournemouth in midweek and have now not won in seven League One games, a run that has left them second bottom with manager Terry Skiverton having a go at his players after their latest setback.
It’s just the sort of banana skin Pools have slipped up on in the past – with a potential third round money-spinner awaiting Saturday’s winners, they can’t afford it this time.