Seven goals in this Pools cracker

If you were there for this one in April 1975, you were in for a Victoria Ground treat.

Barnsley were the visitors but they left the North-East the losers in a 4-3 thriller.

Or, as the Mail’s reporter at the time put it, ‘neither team had anything to lose so both threw caution to the wind and attacked at every opportunity’.

The match was a cracker on a lovely warm Spring day. This was a game which Pools dominated yet were punished for defensive lapses. ‘Some of the goals were good ones and some were brilliant’, said the report.

Yet it all started with a dull opening and neither side exerted control.

The deadlock was broken on the 34th minute when Kevin McMahon worked a nice one-two with Malcolm Moore. His shot was blocked by Barnsley keeper Gerry Stewart but Ward ran in to latch on to the loose ball and slot the goal from 10 yards.

It was 2-0 three minutes later when Ward sent Rob Smith away on the right. Moore chested down the resulting cross before turning and half-volleying a screamer into the net.

But back came Barnsley on 43 minutes when Peter Price crossed from the left and Kenny Brown got up to head home from close range.

And the visitors equalised on 52 minutes when David Yates’ right win cross was headed home by Price.

Pools regained the advantage on 59 minutes when Kevin Johnson showed determination in midfield to win the ball from a scramble. He fed McMahon who sent Ward clear on the right.

The winger took it inside and beat Stewart with a clever chip as the keeper came off his line.

But Barnsley levelled once again on 75 minutes. John Peachey got on the end of a right-wing cross and turned well to volley the ball into the roof of the Pools net.

Time was almost up when the winner came in the 89th minute. Rob Smith sent over a deep cross from the right and, after everyone in the middle missed it, the ball reached Dawes who sent in a header which went over the keeper and just under the bar.

A crowd of 2,111 watched this one.

The Hartlepool Mail report at the time added: “With the sun shining brightly, it seemed both teams were treating the game almost as a holiday affair, both of them attacking whenever possible.”

The game was “the country’s top scoring match on the last full day of the season”.