Hartlepool United verdict: Pools continue to show their mettle in adversity

Three points is three points and, ultimately, it will go a long way to solving many problems in football.

Hartlepool have already demonstrated a number of ways in which they can win games this season and they added to that bow on Saturday having almost fallen victim to their own dominance against Wealdstone.

Pools were in so much control in the first half they almost found themselves caught out by not putting the game to bed and allowing Wealdstone back into things when taking their foot off the accelerator, somewhat.

Stuart Maynard’s side deserve some credit for that in that they flipped the script after the break.

Having offered so little in the opening 45 minutes, Wealdstone came out and had more than a good go in the second half where, on another day, they would have taken something away from the North East with them in terms of points.

As with any game, you aren’t going to enjoy 90 minutes plus of complete dominance, but Hartlepool certainly enjoyed 45 minutes of it.

Whether Wealdstone, tactically, got it wrong, or whether Hartlepool really were such a step above can remain open for debate but Askey’s side were in total control throughout the first half with the only negative being they didn’t have the game wrapped up by the time the half-time whistle came.

Askey’s side played with a cool freedom and expressed themselves at will, leading through Tom Crawford’s second goal of the season – the midfielder typifying what was good about Pools as his fine start to the campaign continued with the 24-year-old running the show at times, having moved slightly further forward in the absence of Anthony Mancini.

But if there is to be a negative it’s that Hartlepool didn’t really go for the jugular at that point, or if they did they were a little off target.

A fairly back and forth second half actually saw Pools go 2-0 up before a quick response made things tense.

There was an anxiety crept in around the ground as these are the kinds of games which Hartlepool will need to win in reality, by whichever means.

And as Wealdstone began testing Pete Jameson more and more, as well as hitting the woodwork and requiring an immense last ditch tackle from Emmanuel Onariase, when Aaron Bannister blew his full-time whistle there was a palpable relief.

But Hartlepool won. And in the end, while we can all consider the positives and negatives of a performance in isolation, that is all that matters.

Would they have liked it to have come a little easier than it did? Sure.

But after what had been a particularly tricky week for the club, three points at the end of it was the perfect tonic.

It can’t have been easy for Askey and his players heading into the game on the back of such a morale-sapping defeat at Chesterfield.

Having gotten themselves into such a good position at the SMH Group Stadium, Pools contrived to let it slip, with a 95th minute goal their ultimate undoing as they came home empty-handed.

Last gasp defeats are never nice, and are never easy to take, irrespective of which stage of the season we’re at and who the opponent is.

But given how well Hartlepool had started both the season and that game at Chesterfield, a major league rival, it was a real kick in the teeth.

On top of that, Hartlepool had to deal with the significant news that both Mancini and Dan Dodds will be out for the rest of the season through injury.

To lose one would have been a huge blow but to lose both would have been unimaginable, and yet here we are.

That’s difficult to take for a squad of players and staff. Not only do you know you are losing two influential players, but there is the personal, individual, level whereby you are seeing your team-mates being put through such anguish as they have to process the news and begin their long road to recovery.

For Mancini that will mean a spell back home with the Frenchman believed to have already left the North East to begin his rehabilitation. It’s a difficult period.

So with all of that mental baggage to contend with, the three points against Wealdstone felt even more significant than any routine home victory. It will give everyone a belief that they can continue to kick on this season with, as Askey said, the added goal now of trying to achieve something for their two team-mates.

What’s more, Hartlepool’s win made it five wins from their opening seven games of the season.

They bounced back from a potentially damaging defeat at Chesterfield and have kept pace with the league leaders all while enjoying their best start to a league season in 35 years.

Not since 1988 have Pools taken as many as 15 points from their first seven games, where they mirrored their record so far this year with wins over Lincoln City, Darlington, Leyton Orient, York City and Cambridge United in the old Division Four.

It’s a start which eclipses that of Dave Challinor’s promotion winning team of 2020-21 and the Division Three promotion winners of 2002-03, who both took 14 points from their first seven games with four wins, two draws and one defeat.

Now that’s not to say Pools will be promoted this season, but it just adds further context as to the impressive nature of this start, likewise how that defeat to Chesterfield is not necessarily the end of the world in the bigger picture – albeit still a little frustrating.

Equally, Askey’s side have now won four straight home games this season, five should you include the 3-1 win over Barrow to end last season, as they chase down a little more success.

Challinor’s side won eight on the spin at home during the 2020-21 campaign, with Neal Cooper’s League One side winning 10 home games in a row during the 2004-05 season where we all know what happened next in the play-offs.

The point being, however, that this has been a strong start by Hartlepool and they are already doing things, or threatening to do things, that haven’t been done in a long time when you think about consecutive wins, home wins and starts to a season.

They have dealt with a little bit of adversity in terms of the criticism aimed their way after the defeat at Barnet, and with a stoppage time defeat at Chesterfield, and with significant injuries, and they are rolling with it.

There remains a long way to go but Pools are ticking along quite nicely, all things considered.