Hartlepool United 'unfamiliar' with quality of Stoke City as Keith Curle reflects on FA Cup exit

Hartlepool never really got close to threatening another third round upset, exactly one year on from their heroics over Blackpool at the same stage of the competition, as Alex Neil’s Championship side eased into the fourth round with three unanswered goals.

Pools were the architects of their own downfall when twice putting through their own net to remove any potential threat of an upset over the Potters.

Euan Murray sliced in Josh Tymon’s cross from the left inside the opening quarter-of-an-hour to hand the initiative to the Championship side before Jacob Brown added a second two minutes before half-time when capitalising on some slack Hartlepool defending to roll beyond Ben Killip from a narrow angle.

And any slight hope of a Hartlepool comeback was extinguished inside five minutes of the restart as, this time, Rollin Menayese found the back of his own net when diverting Harrison Clarke’s cross beyond Killip.

Stoke could have added to their tally with Josh Laurent, Liam Delap and Dwight Gayle all passing up significant opportunities as Hartlepool went out with something of a whimper.

But despite their defeat, Curle acknowledged the effort of his side and admitted sometimes you have to hold your hands up and accept defeat.

“We go again,” he told The Mail.

“We understand the challenges from today. We haven’t disgraced ourselves. We’ve been beaten by a Championship football club.

“Was there a lack of effort, commitment or desire? No. Quality-wise are they better than us? Let’s hold our hands up and say, yeah.”

Curle added: “Mentally they’re probably two yards in front of what our lads are, but we know that.

“It was a good experience for some of them and it was a great experience for some of the academy players who came on.

“The pleasing thing is when you’re coming up against Championship clubs and you see players that you’ve coached and selected in your teams before such as Jack Bonham, Harry Clarke, Phil Jagielka.

“You see the progression in their careers and you look at some of our academy players and think ‘where are they going to be’ in four, five or six year’s time?”

Curle’s remarks came after he introduced academy trio Louis Stephenson, Campbell Darcy and Joe Kitching from the bench in the second half.

The game had already gotten away from Hartlepool before their introduction with Curle conceding his side were unfamiliar with the quality on show from Stoke.

“If you look at their movement, they’re moving you around for a purpose to try and hurt you,” said Curle.

“Some of their movement off the ball is movement we don’t face week in, week out and it’s unfamiliar for some of the players. They don’t understand why someone is playing off their shoulder or dropping off short and trying to take them out of the back-line.

“Our players are not used to that intensity of movement. When you think you’ve covered a run somebody else is exploiting space that you’ve left, but these players are used to doing it day in, day out in training. Our players are used to a more familiar League Two combative style.”