Story of the night: Hartlepool United 0-1 Crewe Alexandra – visitors progress to Carabao Cup second round despite early red card
and live on Freeview channel 276
After Billy Sass-Davies’ early red card, Crewe took the lead in the second half through Callum Ainley at Victoria Park.
Pools pushed for an equaliser but the League One visitors were able to hold on to their 1-0 lead and progress through to the second round.
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FULL-TIME: Hartlepool United 0 Crewe Alexandra 1 (Ainley 50)
Key Events
- Pools XI: Mitchell; Sterry, Byrne, Liddle, Odusina, Francis-Angol; Featherstone, Smith, Daly; Molyneux, Burey
- Pools subs: Killip, Lawlor, Ferguson, Ogle, Holohan, Olomola, Cullen
- Pools bookings: none
- Crewe XI: Jaaskelainen; Ramsey, MacDinald, Offord, Long, Porter, Ainley, McFazdean, Dale, Lundstram, Sass-Davies
- Crewe subs: Richards, Adebisi, Mandron, Finney, Murphy, Daniels, Johnson
- Crewe bookings: Artell (manager, 45)
- Crewe sendings off: Sass-Davies (13)
- Referee: Thomas Bramall
- Attendance: 3,149 (140 Crewe)
72: Pools applying the pressure here
A decent ball into the box causes Crewe problems as Olomola attempts to get a shot away but the flag is up before the ball got the chance to fall to Cullen.
75: Daly’s deflected strike hits the side netting
Half of Victoria Park celebrate as if it’s a goal but it’s only a Pools corner. The hosts pushing here.
82: Olomola doesn’t connect properly with the header
Another fine delivery from Sterry causes problems but Olomola gets his header wrong as it just skims away from the goal.
88: Sterry’s volley deflects just wide
Featherstone’s free-kick delivery is half cleared but it falls to Sterry on the edge of the box whose volleyed effort deflects wide of the right post.
Jonny Mitchell discusses his Pools debut
He said following the match: “Performance wise we’re happy but we didn’t create enough and let in a sloppy goal but box to box it was a decent performance.
“We had the lion’s share of possession but just couldn’t get that goal. It’s difficult playing against 10-men at times and they were difficult to break down but it’s down to us to stop them from scoring.
On his debut, Mitchell added:“It’s a proud moment. I wish the result could have been better but hopefully it’s the first of many.”
Dave Challinor reacts to tonight’s defeat
“It was resilient from them. It reemphasises where we need to improve, I thought we were a little bit toothless up the top end of the pitch and conceded a poor goal from one of their fleeting attacks,” said the Pools boss.
“I can be critical but it’s pointless reemphasising a point we already knew.”