Pools head coach laments Louis Stephenson's costly red card in Dagenham and Redbridge draw
Hartlepool United head coach Anthony Limbrick felt his side would have won Saturday's game against Dagenham and Redbridge - had they managed to keep 11 men on the pitch.
Pools were leading 1-0 and had already seen Mani Dieseruvwe's penalty saved by Jake Turner when teenager Louis Stephenson was sent off midway through the first half after receiving his second yellow card in the space of five minutes.
Stephenson's dismissal, inevitably, changed the momentum of the contest and Pools were forced to grit their teeth and dig their heels in. Even so, the visitors still managed to pose a threat and almost doubled their lead before the break when the towering Billy Sass-Davies was denied by Turner on the stroke of half time.
Limbrick's side had to ride their luck at times - former Pools frontman Josh Umerah hit the bar, influential substitute Dion Pereira struck the upright while Fulham loanee Aaron Loupalo-Bi spurned a gilt-edged chance in the second half. Despite that, there was a sense that Pools were going to be rewarded for their spirited rearguard action and return to the North East with all three points when a moment of bad luck denied them. Centre-half Harry Phipps, who was up from the back as the hosts bombarded the Pools box with long balls, skewed an effort off the side of his boot which nestled into the bottom corner, salvaging a point for Dagenham which keeps them in with a fighting chance of securing National League safety while all but ending the visitors' slim play-off hopes.
Given how dominant Pools were in the opening 25 minutes, it was hard not to feel like Saturday's game was a missed opportunity. A fourth successive win would have moved Limbrick's side another step closer to the top seven as the run-in nears its climax and Pools looked well-placed to continue their fine form until a moment of petulance from 19-year-old Louis Stephenson, who has already shown considerable character and resilience this season and will have to do so again, cost them. While Limbrick insists he was never expecting a comfortable afternoon, he conceded he felt his side would have maintained their winning run had Stephenson not been given his marching orders.
"I don't think there's such a thing as a comfortable afternoon in this league, no matter the scoreline," he told BBC Radio Tees Sport.
"There are good players in all these teams, they're fighting for their lives down the bottom and we knew they'd be up for it, the crowd are up for it here as well. I didn't think it was going to be a comfortable afternoon at all if I'm honest.
"I thought we deserved that goal. You could easily say that if we'd scored the penalty, then we'd have been 2-0 up and things could have been different but it doesn't really work like that.
"I felt we deserved to go in front with the start that we had and it was a shame we couldn't keep 11 men on the pitch because I think we would have won the game."