Were you at this 1996 Pools fixture?

As Christmas fast approached, it was as if the celebrations had started early for Mick Tait’s side.

And it was a debut boy who sealed the points in a second half fight back.

Yet it didn’t start out as a match that Pools looked like winning.

There were only 36 seconds on the clock when Ainsworth found himself clear inside the penalty area, only to shoot wide.

But they were much more accurate on 16 minutes when winger Worrell Stirling fired a high cross into the area for Gijsbert Bos. His floating header didn’t seem too threatening yet somehow it carried into the Pools’ net.

It could have got worse for Pools as they were struggling to cope with both a swirling wind and Lincoln’s style of play.

Lee got in a last-ditch tackle on 23 minutes as Bos prepared to shoot again.

It was only towards the end of the half that Pools began to assert some authority of their own. Joe Allon got on the end of a Cooper header on 42 minutes and was only inches away.

Even though the crowd was only 1,344 strong, they gave the home team a hard time of it.

Yet all that changed in the second half when Pools showed much more strength.

They almost equalised on 63 minutes when Ingram’s long throw-in landed inside the penalty area. It led to shots in turn by both McGuckin and Cooper yet they both crashed into defenders.

It looked like it was going to be one of those days, but all that changed in the space of two minutes.

First, they were awarded a penalty when Martin nudged McGuckin in the back as he shaped to attack Chris Beech’s cross.

Mark Cooper stepped up to take the penalty and scored with his seventh goal of the season.

In an almost identical scene to their victory the week before, Pools scored a second while their fans were still celebrating the first.

The ball was pumped into the box and Allon slipped it on for Jon Sunderland who fired an unstoppable volley from 12 yards.

Hartlepool: O’Connor, Ingram, McAuley, Beech, Lee, McGuckin, Allon, Cooper, Howard, Davies, Hislop. Subs: Sunderland, Tait, Homer.

Lincoln: Richardson, Barnett, Bimson, Hone, G.Brown, Austin, Ainsworth, Dennis, Bos, Martin, Sterling. Subs; S Brown, Minnett, Fleming.