Hartlepool United 0 Solihull Moors 1: Scott Loach error wipes out keeper's first half heroics as Pools slip to 16th in National League

Pools players in action in the defeat to Solihull at the Super 6 Stadium (Shutterpress).

Adi Yussuf was the beneficiary of Loach's mistake as he netted on the stroke of the hour to consign Pools to another one-goal defeat.

The result sees Pools slip to 16th in the National League table.

On the selection front Craig Hignett was robbed of the services of Josh Hawkes through injury and was able to name just four players on the bench, with Adam Bale failing to get back fit.

Fraser Kerr came straight back into the backline, with Pools otherwise unchanged from the defeat at Eastleigh last weekend.

While change has been the norm at Pools on and off the park, one constant has been Loach, who has played every single game since he arrived in the summer of 2017. His form has barely dipped in that time either.

For 45 minutes, this was the Loach show as he kept out the promotion-chasing Moors with a string of Football League class saves.

After just six minutes he got a left arm up to tip a rasping George Carline snapshot over the top. Soon after he was equal to Tyrone Williams' close range header before Nathan Blissett was thwarted by Loach as he looked to turn in from six yards.

Danny Wright looked to have opened the scoring just before the half hour when his looping header from a cross from Pools' left looked destined for the corner, only for Loach to palm it away at full stretch.

Having weathered the storm Pools began to show a little in the final third as the half came to a close - Nicke Kabamba's header across goal could have nicked a goal before the break but Ryan Boot got a hand to it.

Pools will have been content with honours being even at half time.

Into the second 45 and Pools started on the front foot - a break down the right saw Luke Molyneux find Peter Kioso. His cutback deflected to Liam Noble on the edge of the area, but his goalbound shot also deflected wide of the post.

It was during Pools' best passage of play that Moors bagged the opener.

As good as Loach had been in the first 45, he soured that remarkable performance with not one but TWO errors which led to Solihull's Yussuf netting.

At first Loach came to punch a routine corner from the right but didn't get much at all on it and it looped up, attempting to clear up a mess of his own making the keeper then attempted to catch, but spilled the ball right at the feet of Yussuf, who had the easiest of finishes for 1-0.

And while Pools pushed and pushed for an equaliser, it never really looked likely as the visitors closed out the game to climb to second, within a point of new National League leaders Salford City.