John Askey hails 'massive' Hartlepool United win after 10-men triumph over Gateshead

Hartlepool staged yet another late show under Askey at the Suit Direct Stadium when Emmanuel Dieseruvwe scored in the 90th minute to hand an important three points to Pools following their opening day defeat at Barnet.

Dieseruvwe opened the scoring on his debut when converting from close range from Charlie Seaman’s low cross, after the Doncaster Rovers loan defender did well to create space on the right.

Pools surrendered plenty of possession to what was a slick Gateshead side – despite Mike Williamson’s men lacking a cutting edge in the final third.

Askey’s side looked to force the issue a little bit further after the break, having started the second half well, before the game turned on its head when Josh Umerah was shown a straight red card for a lunge on Robbie Tinkler.

It left Hartlepool with over 30 minutes to contest with a man down and Gateshead capitalised little over 10 minutes later when TInkler pounced on a loose ball in the area after Joel Dixon had brilliantly denied Marcus Dinanga.

At that point it felt as though, if there were to be a winner, the points would head back north to Tyneside.

But after questioning Hartlepool’s attitude last week in the defeat at Barnet, Askey’s side showed real guts and determination to dig in and, eventually, grind out an important win as Dieseruvwe converted from inside the six-yard box to cap an excellent late counter-attack.

“It was massive for us to get a result today and to keep everybody onside and send people home happy, that’s why they come to watch the game, they want to see their side win and you can’t do any more,” said Askey.

“There’s no better way to win. You’re thinking it’s going to be one of those hard luck stories [after the red card] and they end up scoring in the last minute and everybody goes away disappointed.

“But it’s what you want from the first [home] game. There were ups and downs during the game.

"I thought in the first half, although we scored a really good goal, we could have done better.

"Second half we came out and started playing and getting hold of the game a little bit and then the sending off changed everything.

"But we couldn’t ask any more of the players today. Every single one of them has given everything.”

He continued: “There has been a lot of feel-good around the place since we got relegated, surprisingly, but I think people could see at the end of the season we were playing quite well.

"I thought if we could take that into this season then we could have a good season, so it was massive to get a result and to do it in that manner as well just gives everybody a lift; myself, the players, staff but the supporters as well.”