Hartlepool striker the only positive at Accrington

The Pools forward staked a claim for a recall to the Pools starting XI when the substitute scored his first goal since October 10 in last night’s 3-1 defeat at Accrington.

Bingham finished superbly in the 78th minute to pull a goal back at the Crown Ground and was denied what looked a nailed-on penalty six minutes from time when he was tripped by defender Joe Wright.

The 22-year-old was a real handful and could now start at Cambridge on Saturday.

“It was a great finish by Raks,” Featherstone told SportMail.

“He looked lively when he came on and stretched the defence with his pace. It was great to see Raks back and playing well.

“I thought it was a penalty, the lad clipped him, and Raks has said the same. Maybe he was too honest in trying to stay up and finish instead of going down?

“I am not saying we deserved anything but if we’d been given the penalty it could have changed the game. They may have wobbled.”

The stand-in skipper though was honest enough to say Accrington were worthy winners.

“They seemed to have an extra man,” he said. “We worked on trying to counter the way we knew they’d play. But we could not stop them from hurting us and we gave the goals away.”

“We are very disappointed we could not kick on from our win over Wycombe and the performance against Derby the week before.

“The front four or five players of Accrington seemed to have a licence to roam wherever they want and we found it hard to counter that.

“They are probably the best we’ve played, may be a long with Bristol Rovers, but we were upset with how we played.”