Wealdstone suffer shock FA Cup first round defeat ahead of Hartlepool United visit
Hartlepool United will face National League rivals Wealdstone at Victoria Park next Saturday afternoon.
Wealdstone manager Gary Waddock quickly set his sights of facing Hartlepool United after his side suffered a shock FA Cup first round defeat at the hands of National League South club Dover Athletic.
The Stones have struggled to find form in the National League this season and are sitting just three points and three placed above 21st placed Pools ahead of next weekend’s meeting at Victoria Park. However, Waddock’s men were still favourites to progress into Monday’s second round draw when they travelled to the Crabble Ground on Saturday afternoon.
Dover took the lead with just 15 minutes on the clock and set the foundations for a shock win when Jack Bates fired home from the edge of the area before the same player doubled his tally and his side’s lead with a powerful effort just two minutes before half-time. That proved to be enough to send The Whites into the second round draw as Stones boss Waddock was left to apologise to supporters before turning his focus towards what he described as a ‘very, very important game’ at Pools next weekend.
Join the Mail’s WhatsApp HUFC Channel for the latest news, analysis and injury updates direct to your phone. Simply click this link to join.
Speaking after the defeat, he told the club website: “I’d like to apologise to all of our supporters that travelled down today and the ones back home. It’s a really disappointing performance and a disappointing result - but Dover were the better side and they deserved to win.”
He continued: “I want to congratulate them because I thought their performance was really good and like I said, they were the better team. The better team won, they went on to win the game comfortably and I apologise to the supporters because we are out of the FA Cup now and that wasn’t the plan. We’ve got to get over this defeat first and we’ve got a very, very important game at Hartlepool next Saturday so we have to pick the bones out of this, analyse it, feed back to the players to get ready and prepare ourselves for Hartlepool next week.”
Your next Hartlepool United read: Former Hartlepool United defender reveals mental battle after serious injury