Pools recover to start 2011 with great victory

The new year got off to a bad start for Hartlepool United – but the bad luck lasted less than half an hour as they fought back to claim a thumping win over Oldham at Victoria Park. Four League wins on the trot have taken them to the fringes of the play-off zone and at the moment they are undoubtedly one of the form teams in League One.

Yet they lost kipper Sam Collins (right) through a knee injury early on and fell behind on 18 minutes, as Dale Stephens scored from 20 yards.
But Pools recovered well and were level with their first penalty of the season slotted in by Neil Austin slotted in Pool's first penalty of the season, taking the lead on 44 minutes when Peter Hartley volleyed in from close range.
Richie Humphreys scored the third from close in on the hour and Antony Sweeney claimed his ninth of the season with another close-range finish. Yves Myto, who had given the penalty away earlier,   narrowed the gap too late to make any difference to the result.
They have won seven of their last eight games, two of them in the FA Cup, their only setback a cruel 3-2 defeat at Colchester when they fell to a penalty that should never have been awarded.
Collins will miss Monday’s game at Notts County, but even that blow didn’t completely wipe the smile off Mick Wadsworth face.
“It was a tough game,” he told the club website. “They played better in the first 20 minutes and we didn’t really get going until they scored their goal.
“We played our away game at home today – we counter-attacked well and the third goal was a great example of that. Losing Sam Collins was a big blow, but Steve Haslam came in and did really well.
“We’re in a good position at the moment and one we’d have been happy with if we’d been offered it at the start of the season.”
Happy? Most fans would have snatched your hand off.
It’s tempting to say Pools are over-performing, but that would be unfair on Wadsworth and his players.
The plain fact is that he is getting the best out of his squad and the players are responding magnificently to whatever it is that he is doing to produce these results.
He always said Pools would get better as the season went on – at the moment he and the players are proving that forecast right.
And if you thought all this was too good to be true - look at the League table. If they win at County and other results go their way, Pools could be second top by Monday night.