Story of the day: Hartlepool United 1-1 Exeter City – Pools drop points at Victoria Park for the first time this season
and live on Freeview channel 276
Luke Molyneux’s first Football League goal gave Pools a first half lead before Exeter’s Sam Nombe equalised before the break.
The second half saw a few half chances but neither side were able to find the winner as they had to settle for a point.
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FULL-TIME: Hartlepool United 1 (Molyneux 25’) Exeter City 1 (Nombe 41’)
Key Events
- Hartlepool United, with a newly contracted Dave Challinor, host Exeter City at Victoria Park this afternoon.
- The Grecians sit level on points with Pools in the table but are a place above them due to superior goal difference.
- Pools XI: Killip; Jones, Francis-Angol, Byrne, Hendrie, Sterry; Featherstone, Shelton, Daly; Molyneux, Fondop
- Pools subs: Mitchell, Odusina, Ogle, Smith, Goodwin, Cook, Cullen
- Pools bookings: Byrne (90)
- Exeter XI: Dawson; Caprice, Ray, Jay, Nombe, Key (Edwards 84), Dieng (Atangana 69), Taylor (Collins 56), Brown, Sweeney, Hartridge
- Exeter subs: Lee, Atangana, Collins, Amond, Daniel, Kite, Edwards
- Exeter bookings: Ray (46), Dieng (59)
- Referee: Leigh Doughty
- Attendance: 5,194 (171 Exeter)
The Exeter team is in
Exeter XI: Dawson; Caprice, Ray, Jay, Nombe, Key, Dieng, Taylor, Brown, Sweeney, Hartridge
Exeter subs: Lee, Atangana, Collins, Amond, Daniel, Kite, Edwards
The Pools line-up is in!
Pools line-up to face Exeter: Killip; Jones, Francis-Angol, Byrne, Hendrie, Sterry; Featherstone, Shelton, Daly; Molyneux, Fondop
Subs: Mitchell, Odusina, Ogle, Smith, Goodwin, Cook, Cullen
Early team news - several players ruled out
Pools boss Dave Challinor said: “Lidds [Gary Liddle] will be rested, he’s been suffering from Achillies tendonitis and has had an injection so he’ll be back in on Monday and we’ll manage that moving forward.
“Fergie [David Ferguson], similarly, he came off against Oldham and looked like he was struggling.
“He’s touch and go and we’ll have to make a decision whether it’s a risk worth taking. If he misses Saturday, it will be a game he misses, fingers crossed.
But there has still been some positive developments on the injury front.
“Joe [Grey] has joined in and is back in with the group,” Challinor confirmed. “With him and the time he’s been out and his age, we need to be cautious with him.
“Gav [Holohan] has been out and is running at a decent pace, next is about his directional stuff and see where we are with that.
“Those ones we’ve got out, Tyler [Burey], Lidds, Gav and potentially Fergie, they are four players, who looking at our squad, are probably in our strongest XI which is a third of our best team out.”
Exeter manager Matt Taylor expecting a tough game
Taylor spoke to the Exeter club website ahead of the game and said: ““You look at what [Hartlepool] did last season, their play-off campaign and the way they got promoted,” Taylor told the Exeter club website.
“Certainly their home form is something that has been so impressive. They’re a really strong team at home and you can sense the town and the community has got behind them as well.
“It sounds strange when you’re not going to the biggest ground or the biggest set of supporters in the world but whether it’s five, six thousand this weekend, making a lot of noise and backing their team – we’ve got to understand what it will feel like to start with and what the game will feel like.
“We’ve got to implement our style on the game and hopefully quieten down the expectation of everyone who is there.”
