Crewe Alexandra 2-0 Hartlepool United: Red card, substitutions and a missed opportunity - the key takeaways from Pools defeat

It’s a result which sees them drop into the bottom two as the pressure continues to grow with just 15 games remaining.

Things might have been different for Keith Curle’s side had full-back Jamie Sterry not been shown a straight red card for a challenge on Rio Adebisi inside the opening 15 minutes of the game.

But the Railwaymen would take full advantage of the situation with goals from Callum Ainley and Ryan Finnigan.

And here are some of the key takeaways from Hartlepool’s defeat.

Jamie Sterry’s red card

There’s no denying Sterry's red card was a turning point.

Curle’s side had started brightly against a fragile Crewe who had taken just four points from their last six games. But that all changed when Adebisi found himself in a heap on the floor following a coming together with Sterry.

From a distance it seemed fairly innocuous, but the referee showed no hesitation in sending Sterry off with Curle later confirming another angle had shown the severity of the challenge.

“I think if you see it from the angle that we’ve seen it at, there’s no appeal,” Curle revealed after the game.

“It’s not reckless,” he added to The Mail.

“He hasn’t left the ground. We’re playing on a bobbly pitch, the ball has bobbled up, and Jamie has gone to try and toe-poke it away. I don’t think he’s gone in with intent.”

From one extreme to another for Hartlepool United

Against Sutton, it was Hartlepool who benefited from having a man advantage following Craig Eastmond’s red card before half-time.

It allowed Hartlepool to grab two quickfire goals to level the scores and, ultimately, earn a point.

What was perhaps frustrating with that result, however, was that Hartlepool had given themselves 45 minutes to find a winner against 10 men but were unable to do it - Sutton themselves still having one or two notable opportunities in the second half.

Here, Pools were on the opposite end of the red card as it was they who had to play out the game with 10 men.

But with the score at 0-0 when Sterry was sent off, it took Crewe less than 20 minutes to capitalise with Ainley’s goal before Finnigan would effectively take the game out of sight eight minutes later.

“Taylor Foran had a tough debut but I thought he did well, he competed well,” Curle started when discussing the goals.

“But you find if you go to ground in the box, the ball has got to be out and you’ve got to secure possession of the ball. You can’t leave it bobbling around. Then it’s a tap in.

“The second goal, the goalkeeper has come out and got a punch on it and it’s one of those days where it lands straight to the foot of the lad on the edge of the box and he kept his finish on target.”

Keith Curle’s half-time substitutes

With Peter Hartley still unavailable, Curle had a decision to make as to whether he would, again, go with Matt Dolan in the centre of defence or hand a full debut to Arsenal loanee Taylor Foran. He went with the latter.

Elsewhere there was a return for striker Jack Hamilton, who replaced Connor Jennings in attack, with Jennings struggling with a calf problem and only available for the bench.

The real talking point came at half-time, however, when Curle made a triple substitution introducing Mouhamed Niang, Brendan Kiernan and Jennings in place of captain Nicky Featherstone, Oliver Finney and, surprisingly, Josh Umerah.

Umerah had been fairly isolated following the red card but, naturally, still represented Hartlepool’s main goal threat before his withdrawal, whilst it is now the third time in five games Curle has made the decision to substitute his captain at some stage in the game.

Asked on his half-time decisions, Curle said: “I wanted to play with strikers with a little bit of pace and to stop them from having as much play on the ball and to try and keep the ball in the middle of the park and deny them getting down the sides of us.

“I thought they did too much of that in the first half when we went down to 10 men. They moved the ball well and created overloads in wide areas so we had to try and nullify that with two split strikers and try and keep play in the middle of the pitch.

He added to The Mail: “We had to change the shape and go to 4-4-1.

“I’ve always been told as early as you can, when you’ve got a balance in a game, to try and get two up top or play them wide and have a midfield three that can shuffle across.

“We stemmed a lot of the flow and joy they had in the first half with shifting the ball and going down the outside.”

A lack of impact

Although Curle suggested his side nullified Crewe’s threats more in the second half, the triple change had little in the way of an impact in terms of Hartlepool staging an unlikely comeback.

Kiernan added energy in the final third but was a little erratic in possession whilst Jennings was rarely able to pick the ball up in the desired areas in front of goal - both he and Kiernan had just one touch each in Crewe’s penalty area in the second half before Edon Pruti was added to the mix late on as a third option.

Crewe might have added to their lead through Dan Agyei and Adebisi before Pools did find a little bit of something in terms of possession with Dan Dodds and Dan Kemp getting more involved.

But they were unable to turn that into any credible attempts at goal with Dodds firing off target the closest they came whilst Kemp, despite being the liveliest of those in black shirts, was just missing that final ball.

Pools had just two shots on target on the night against a Crewe side who had not won in the league since New Year’s Day and had conceded seven in their last three games.

A missed opportunity for Hartlepool United

Despite what, historically, has been a forgetful record at Crewe, this represented an opportunity for Hartlepool in their battle for survival.

Crewe were bottom of the form table prior to kick-off and, although the red card changed things, we have still seen teams with 10 men go on to impact games - something we didn’t really witness here aside from an excellent opportunity for Finney against his old club.

“It was a great chance,” said Curle.

“But it’s fine margins and then down to the interpretation of the referee.

“Even seeing the angles that we’ve seen, he’s closer to it, he’s made the decision and you’ve got to back the decisions they make.”

It means Pools have now dropped back into the bottom two, level on points with Crawley Town who critically hold three games in hand.

And it’s those games in hand which are beginning to look evermore concerning as Pools could soon find themselves being cut adrift.