Mixed emotions for Hartlepool United boss Keith Curle as Solihull Moors force FA Cup replay

Pools were twice pegged back by the National League side and as a result will have to face them again at the Suit Direct Stadium in 10 days time to secure their spot in the next round of the competition.

Josh Umerah gave Hartlepool the lead inside the opening 20 minutes when he converted Wes McDonald’s cross at the second time of asking before Andrew Dallas levelled the scores early in the second half to cap a swift counter-attack from the home side.

Neal Ardley’s Moors were unbeaten at the Armco Arena this season heading into the tie but that record looked under threat after substitute Jack Hamilton scored his first goal for Pools to regain the lead for Curle’s side. Hamilton has been missing for a month with injury but made an instant impact on his return to the squad.

But Pools were unable to see the tie out as the impressive Joe Sbarra finally got the better of a resilient Ben Killip six minutes from time to force a replay with the Hartlepool interim manager conflicted in his reaction.

“We’re still in the hat and it is as simple as that,” said Curle.

“They had a few chances and we had a few chances and opportunities. Ultimately they finished the game very well because we gave them the opportunity to get that goal back. So we have to take the draw, but it’s disappointing when you take the lead twice.

“We are shuffling the pack and we’re using every resource available to be a competitive team and today we showed it with eight players injured.”

Curle added to The Mail: “We had a good result at the weekend where we showed the resilience that was needed. Today we’re disappointed because we’ve taken the lead twice and we’ve not been able to shut it out.

“But within that you can see why they’ve got a very good home record as well. The last eight minutes they came out of their shell and caused us problems but we hung in there and got the draw. You need to do that in the cup.”