Wads angry as Pools throw victory away

If you want to know why Hartlepool United have spent the season see-sawing between just below the League One play-off zone and just above the relegation zone, you need look no further than their 5-2 defeat at Walsall. Teams that can throw away a two-goal lead against a sides looking in total disarray will never get anywhere.

And that’s what Pools did. With almost an hour gone, they were in total control, Colin Larkin’s second goal underlining their grip on the game.

Then they blew it in an amazing act of football suicide.

After volleying the only goal in the first half, Larkin celebrated his recall with a second on 49 minutes and Pools were coasting.

But within ten minutes will Grigg had narrowed the gap and Darren Byfield headed an equalizer soon afterwards.

As Pools fell apart, Julian gray tapped in for Walsall’s third, Manny Smith headed a fourth and sub Emmanuel Ledesma, whose introduction soon after Larkin’s second had spurred Walsall, deservedly drove home a long-range free-kick for the fifth.

Mick Wadsworth always tries to look on the positive side after a Pools game, whatever the result, but he found that impossible after this one.

He told the club website: “When you are 2-0 up you have to be ultra-professional and dogged, which we have shown we can be.

“However, it seems every time we get into the upper part of the League, we lose our nerve, which is very disappointing.

“I feel sorry for the supporters because they deserve better than that. Playing for an hour just isn’t good enough.

“Every game we have lost recently has been tight and hard-fought, but not today – that was abysmal.”