Defender Billy Sass-Davies proud of gutsy defensive display against Dagenham and Redbridge
Hartlepool United defender Billy Sass-Davies was proud of how his side put their bodies on the line in Saturday's draw with Dagenham and Redbridge.
Pools were a goal to the good and looked to be in cruise control when teenager Louis Stephenson received the first red card of his fledgling career in the 25th minute. The visitors, who could have been further in front had the sprawling Jake Turner not saved Mani Dieseruvwe's rather tame penalty, dominated the opening exchanges but were forced to alter their approach after going down to 10.
At that stage, a promising afternoon looked set to become a long and challenging one for the visitors, who needed to win to keep any realistic hopes of gatecrashing the National League play-offs alive. With Dagenham in a different sort of battle at the wrong end of the table and the boisterous home fans encouraged by their man advantage, the hosts began to venture forward and bombard the Pools box. While the visitors rode their luck at times and Josh Umerah, who spent two seasons at the Prestige Group Stadium, and influential substitute Dion Pereira both struck the woodwork, Pools looked like holding on until three minutes from time when centre-back Harry Phipps, rather fortuitously, skewed an effort off the top of his boot and into the bottom corner.
It was cruel on Pools, who had produced such a spirited rearguard action having played for well over an hour with 10 men. Although it might have been a bitter pill to swallow given that Dagenham's late goal all but extinguished their play-off dreams, it was nonetheless a performance to be proud of. Sass-Davies, who has started all of the last seven matches and produced another commanding display at Victoria Road, reflected on his side's determined rearguard action after being reduced to 10 men.
"When you go down to 10 men in the National League, the ball's always going to get thrown into the box constantly," he said.
"It's just about dealing with it, standing tall and putting your bodies on the line; I thought we all did that.
"I thought Mani (Dieseruvwe) chased really well, he was flicking the ball on and getting on the end of his own flick-ons. He was really good today from the front and we defended as a team.
"We all put in a really good shift, we're just gutted we didn't win."