Story of the night: Sutton United 1-0 Hartlepool United – away day blues continue for poor Pools
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Ben Goodliffe’s first half strike was enough to separate the sides at Gander Green Lane as Sutton made their dominance count.
It was a frustrating evening for Pools who struggled to get going until the final few minutes when Olofela Olomola and Jamie Sterry both saw headers go wide.
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Hide AdThe defeat sees Pools drop to fifth in the League Two table.
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FULL-TIME: Sutton United 1 (Goodliffe 25’) Hartlepool United 0
Key Events
- Pools XI: Killip; Francis-Angol, Odusina (Ferguson 61), Liddle, Byrne, Sterry; Featherstone, Smith (Olomola 61); Daly, Molyneux, Goodwin (Cullen 77)
- Pools subs: Mitchell, Ogle, Crawford, Jones
- Pools bookings: Featherstone (70), Byrne (73), Sweeney (80), Cullen (86)
- Sutton XI: Bouzanis, Goodliffe, John, Ajiboye, Eastmond, Sho-Silva (Wilson 66), Boldewijn, Joe Kizzi, Milsom, Bennett (Bugiel 63), Smith
- Sutton subs: Wyatt, Rowe, Beautyman, Randall, House
- Sutton bookings: Bugiel (73), Milsom (90)
- Referee: Simon Hooper
- Attendance: 2,484 (251 Pools)
Dominic Scurr’s verdict on Pools’ starting XI
Have to say, that’s an interesting line-up for Pools tonight. Seems to be a 5-4-1/3-4-3 set-up.
Mark Shelton is here but not in the squad, David Ferguson makes the bench. First league start for Martin Smith too.
Timi Odusina comes back into the side for the first time in the league since the 3-2 defeat at Barrow last month.
Matt Gray on Pools
Sutton manager Matt Gray in tonight’s programme: “On the day that we beat Hartlepool to win the National League in May, their reaction showed a lot of class, coming out to shake hands with us at the presentation.
“I’ve got a lot of time and respect for Dave and his team and was delighted that they joined us in League Two. It was a difficult summer for them, with the short gap between winning the play-offs and the start of the League Two season leaving them up against it.”
Stream tonight’s match
You can stream tonight’s match via iFollow for £10 here - https://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/matches/fixtures/first-team/202122/september/sutton-united-vs-hartlepool-united-on-17-aug-21/
Dave Challinor looks ahead to tonight’s game
“It’s a tough game and we’ll have to defend well at Sutton,” Challinor said. “You look at the step up in levels and Sutton are a threat in forward areas and they will be direct and get the ball forward to cause problems.
“The minimum we have to do is deal with that if we’re going to get anything from the game.
“Our mindset will be around doing the basics and keeping a clean sheet which will give us a good chance of winning the game. But we know we’ll have to be right at it.”
A loooooong journey for Pools
It’s the first long away trip for Pools since, well, Sutton last season! But we won’t dwell on that too much.
Good evening and welcome back to our Pools live blog!
We’re all the way down in Sutton this evening for Hartlepool United’s latest League Two match.
This match was originally set to take place last month but was rearranged due to pitch issues at Gander Green Lane.
Pools have never won away at Sutton in four attempts. They will be hoping the new grass surface will work in their favour this evening.
Dave Challinor’s side are yet to win away from home this season but know a win will take them up to second in the table after seven games.
Let’s see how things unfold...