Hartlepool United 0-5 Stockport County: The key takeaways as Dave Challinor haunts 'lifeless' Pools

The pre-match build-up centred on one thing: the return of Challinor, but, in reality, the aftermath goes way beyond that.

Having secured a positive result, and performance, in the FA Cup against Harrogate Town, the hope was Hartlepool could bring that back into the league in order to move off the bottom of the table. Instead, newly appointed permanent manager Keith Curle watched on as his side crumbled in front of their third largest home crowd of the season.

Kyle Wootton’s four minute brace effectively ended the game inside 20 minutes with Pools offering little in the way of a response before Challinor’s Stockport added a stinging gloss to the scoreline in the second half with goals from Paddy Madden, Callum Camps and Will Collar.

And here are some of the key takeaways from a frightening afternoon for Hartlepool.

The ghost of Challinor

It’s been over 13 months since Challinor had been to the Suit Direct Stadium - his last act as manager here coming when his side came from 2-0 behind against Harrogate to win 3-2 with three goals in seven second half minutes.

That day, back in October 2021, Pools were cheered off the field at half-time despite being 2-0 down. Here, thanks to Wootton’s two strikes - the first capitalising on a mistake from Reghan Tumilty, the second all too easy from Collar’s low cross, Pools were jeered off at the break following yet another lacklustre display.

And, unlike that day over a year ago, they did not recover. Nor did they once look like it as Stockport coasted to a comfortable victory.

The club is almost unrecognisable from Challinor’s time, a notion not lost on the Stockport boss who admitted his sadness at seeing the Suit Direct Stadium empty long before the full-time whistle.

Where once, under Challinor, this place was a fortress, now teams merely need to turn up, at least in Stockport’s case, to get a result.

The ghost of Challinor will continue to loom around the Suit Direct Stadium for as long as the club continues to avalanche its way towards the National League - such was the success he was able to achieve here.

Lifeless Hartlepool

The most frightening aspect of this defeat was the lack of a response from Curle’s side after falling behind.

In a game which had very little between the two sides in the opening 15 minutes, as the pantomime antics between both sets of supporters surrounding Challinor took charge, Pools were simply lifeless following Wootton’s goal.

Where goals, sometimes, give teams a jolt into life, Hartlepool remained motionless as Collar was allowed to reach a simple ball over the top and pick out Wootton with ease to double the lead four minutes later.

Again, nothing.

Curle suggested after the game that none of his players would get into the Stockport team on that performance and the worrying part of that is, Stockport were some way from their best. Challinor admitted his side have played ‘much better and lost’ but here they were able to remain on auto-pilot for the majority of the game.

A week ago, Hartlepool strung together a 26-passing sequence which culminated in Josh Umerah scoring. Here, there was none of that fluidity or desire to get on the ball from the off.

Hastie’s chance

And yet there was, perhaps, one turning point which came on the stroke of half-time as Jake Hastie spurned a golden opportunity to get Hartlepool back in the game.

Having timed his run well, Hastie latched onto the end of a fine through ball from Callum Cooke before beating the defender only to slice horribly wide with the goal gaping.

There’s no escaping from it being a glaring miss by Hastie, a man who in recent weeks has been better. But, similarly to his miss against Tranmere Rovers from an almost identical position earlier in the season, the former Rangers winger was unable to deliver as his stats remain at no goals and just one assist in 13 league appearances.

Early goals against

Goals against are a problem in general for Hartlepool this season having conceded a whopping 39 in 20 league games - only League One side Burton Albion have a worse record in the top four divisions in England at 41 from 20 games.

But conceding early is becoming a growing concern for Curle and his side.

Of those 39 goals against, 14 have come before the 30 minute mark in games with 10 of those 14 coming in Curle’s tenure in charge.

And sometimes it is not just one goal Pools are conceding early, it is multiple. At Barrow they found themselves 3-0 behind inside 21 minutes. Here against Stockport and away at Swindon Town they were 2-0 behind inside 20 minutes. They are giving themselves a mountain to climb in games which is insurmountable given the lack of reaction from players when going behind.

“As soon as a player crosses the white line they’ve got an understanding and a requirement to be a good player,” said Curle.

“Players who consistently make errors we’ll need to change. It’s as simple as that. When you have a look at the football pyramid there are certain players that have got standout ability but when you have a look at some of the others they consistently don't make silly mistakes.

“That’s why they have careers that see them climb pyramids and what you find is players at this level consistently make these mistakes. This is the level that they’re at and there’s a reason why.”

But whether it’s by changing personnel or by work on the training ground, Curle needs to find a way to remedy Hartlepool’s defensive issues.