Dominic Scurr's verdict: Win over Yeovil Town is the promotion fuel Hartlepool United need going into the second half of the season

Pools’ 2-1 win over Yeovil Town on Saturday afternoon was their seventh consecutive win at The Vic, but it was far from plain sailing.

Bouncing Back

Dave Challinor’s side went into the game looking to bounce back from their midweek defeat at Eastleigh and climb back up the National League table after slipping down to fifth.

But confidence remained high as the side were enjoying their best run of results at home in 14 years.

It’s been two and a half months since Pools failed to win at Victoria Park as they faced a resurgent Yeovil side who had won their last two.

Over the past two seasons, games between Yeovil and Pools have been eventful, goal-filled affairs. Saturday’s encounter did not disappoint – unless you’re of a Yeovil persuasion.

Mixing It Up

Challinor made two changes from Eastleigh with Gary Liddle making his first start since October in place of Timi Odusina and club captain Ryan Donaldson returned to the starting line-up for the injured Jamie Sterry.

Pools had scored 11 in their last four meetings with the Glovers but were finding goals hard to come by on Saturday afternoon.

Luke Armstrong and Rhys Oates had been in prolific form at home but neither were able to really test goalkeeper Adam Smith. Armstrong fired into the side netting early on while Oates headed over following a good cross from Tom White.

At the other end, Rhys Murphy had the best chance of the first half as Liddle put in a fine block before Ben Killip brilliantly tipped the follow up effort wide.

There was little to choose between the sides as they went in goalless at the break. But shortly after the restart, Yeovil found a breakthrough as a long ball forward fell to Tom Knowles who fired the ball emphatically into the top right corner of the goal from 25-yards.

Uncharted Waters

Now Yeovil had that all important first goal and Pools would have to come from behind in order to continue their winning run at The Vic – something they hadn’t done at home since the 4-2 win over Wrexham in August 2019.

Challinor has spoken regularly about finding different ways to win matches, it’s the hallmark of a good team, a promotion challenging team.

We’ve seen with wins over Sutton United and Notts County that Pools have what it takes to grind out wins and frustrate teams.

But we’ve never seen them pluck a victory from the jaws of defeat – until now.

A change of formation to Challinor’s favoured 4-3-3 allowed more players to get forward and attack the Yeovil goal.

Joe Grey and Luke Williams were primed and ready to take to the field as a late roll of the dice for Pools as they searched for a way back into the game.

But they quickly sat back down as, with 18-minutes remaining, Hartlepool drew level.

Armstrong poked the ball home from two yards after Smith failed to claim the low cross at the front post – the striker’s eighth in 11 league games.

It was the first time the ball had really fallen for Pools and it gave them a platform to go on and claim victory.

The attacking introductions of Grey and Mason Bloomfield in the closing stages with the game hanging in the balance proved inspired.

After defending a Yeovil free-kick, Pools charged forward with 17-year-old Grey played through on goal looking to get his second in as many matches.

The chance looked to have gone begging as the youngster was forced out wide. What happened next was something that separates your ordinary players from your match winners and Grey turned into the latter as he beat his man brilliantly along the byline before squaring the ball across goal to Gavan Holohan who simply couldn’t miss to end his 12 match goal drought.

With 90-minutes on the clock, Pools sealed victory at the death.

The only disappointing part, as has been the case all season, is the lack of energy and enthusiasm from the stands to back up what was a fantastic win for Pools.

It’s the type of win that would have had Victoria Park rocking, instead we get muted cheers and applause. That’s the best we can hope for at the moment.

Finding Ways To Win

Neither side would have had many complains had the game ended 1-1. Pools deserved something out of the game, as did Yeovil.

But it’s that X factor, that edge that Pools seem to be showing more and more frequently that is separating them from the Pools sides in previous seasons where the potential was there but the execution was lacking.

As cliched as it is, it doesn’t matter how you win matches, the league table shows nothing for good performances or being unlucky. At the moment, three points is the only currency for Pools at Victoria Park.

And Saturday’s win was promotion fuel for Challinor’s side. That’s a slightly hyperbolic way of phrasing a fortuitous win, but it’s true.

Winning convincingly is great to watch but it’s those wins you pick up that you probably shouldn’t that prove to be the difference between a side who fancy their chances of getting into the play-offs and genuine contenders for promotion.

We’re at the halfway stage in the season, a lot of football is left to be played but at the moment Pools are leaning towards the latter.

They may not end up doing anything significant this season, but if they do, it’s afternoon’s like what we’ve just witnessed that they’ll look back on and go ‘wow, that was a big one for us.’

Pools move up to third but things move on quickly and if they really want to challenge this season they need to start translating their home form on the road, starting at Wrexham on Tuesday night.

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