Paul Hartley expands on 'various reasons' for transfer deadline day frustration as Hartlepool United draw at Colchester United

Pools were on course for their first league win of the season after Wes McDonald’s astute first half finish gave them a lead which would last until the 94th minute at the Jobserve Community Stadium.

But having invited pressure for large periods of the second half, despite defending gallantly, Pools were breached in the dying embers by Beryly Lubala’s powerful header.

And it capped what has been a disheartening couple of days for Hartley who was unable to secure a number of deals he had lined up on transfer deadline day.

The Pools boss had been hoping for ‘three or four’ new additions before the window closed on Thursday, but was only able to complete one deal with the arrival of Clarke Oduor on loan from Barnsley.

And following the injuries sustained by both Josh Umerah and Mikael Ndjoli over the last week, Pools’ failure in the market on transfer deadline day left Hartley short in the final third at Colchester with loan striker Jack Hamilton the only recognised forward in the squad.

But Hartley conceded ‘that’s the way it is’ when asked why he thinks those deals to enhance his squad fell through on transfer deadline day.

“It’s various reasons,” Hartley told The Mail.

“You’ve got to have players who want to come. You’ve got to financially match what they want and then the right type and quality, do they want to drop down to League Two?

“So that’s part and parcel we’ve had to deal with for a lot of the summer.

“We’ve been in the market for so many players and we’ve not managed to get them, but that’s the way it is.”

Hartley added: “We were playing with a young striker who came off and then we had to go and play with no strikers.

“The lads who were going up had to try and do something and look a threat.

“Teams play with no strikers sometimes in terms of if you look at the top teams. But we had to do what we did today and just try and make something out of it.”