Story of the night: Blyth Spartans 2-1 Hartlepool United – promotion hangover continues at Croft Park
and live on Freeview channel 276
Goals in either half from Jordan Hickey and JJ O’Donnell gave the National League North side a 2-0 lead before Nicky Featherstone’s looping header pulled a goal back for Pools, who have now been beaten by all three of their National League North opponents in pre-season.
Next up for Dave Challinor’s side is Northern Premier Division One side Dunston UTS.
Refresh the page and scroll through our live blog to see how events unfolded…
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FULL-TIME: Blyth Spartans 2 (Hickey 9’, O’Donnell 75’) Hartlepool United 1 (Featherstone 79’)
Key Events
- Pools XI: Trialist, Sterry, Odusina, Liddle, Trialist, Ferguson, Shelton, Featherstone, Holohan, Molyneux, Trialist
- Pools subs: Killip, Trialist, Smith, Crawford, Olomola, MacDonald, Ogle, Byrne, Francis-Angol, Trialist, Close
- Confirmed Pools trialists: Shaun MacDonald (GK), Jake Lawlor, Adam Smith (GK)
- Blyth XI: Mitchell, Byrne, Lees, Buddle, Watson, Liddle, Deverdics, Hickey, O’Donnell, McNall, Dale
- Blyth subs: Trialist, Evans, Trialist, Painter, McKeown, Gillies, Clark, Reid, Trialist
- Referee: Adam Williamson
- Attendance: 815
Crawley tickets on sale tomorrow!
Tickets for Pools’ League Two opener against Crawley Town at Victoria Park go on sale tomorrow at 10am
Adults: £20
Concessions: £14
Under-16s: £5
Under-5s: Free
August 7, kick-off 3pm
Visit the Hartlepool United website or ticket office to purchase yours.
Gary Liddle reacted to the weekend defeat at Gateshead
“You definitely feel the disappointment, the manager won’t allow it to be shrugged off and I think the fact he didn’t come in after the game tells its own story,” Liddle told The Mail.
“We’ll go over things on Monday and fingers will be pointed which is how he is. He’s said himself that he’s an emotional guy and he’ll call people out.”
Welcome back to our Pools live blog!
Croft Park is this evening’s setting as Pools continue their National League North tour against Blyth Spartans.
Dave Challinor will be desperate to see his side put in a performance and win this evening after disappointing defeat at Spennymoor Town and Gateshead.
We’ll have all the team news, build-up and developments throughout the evening here so stay tuned!
