Sutton United assistant manager Jon Meeney felt his side should have been out of sight after Hartlepool United came from behind to end their eight-match unbeaten run on Saturday.

Pools missed a host of chances in a dominant first half display, going close through the likes of Reyes Cleary, whose impressive performance earned him a place in the National League team of the week, Nathan Sheron, Dan Dodds, Luke Waterfall and Mani Dieseruvwe.

Sutton were well below their best in the opening period but came out of the blocks quickly after the restart and took the lead 55 seconds into the second half when the in-form Will Davies scored his 10th goal in 11 games.

Pools, who were lining up in a 3-5-2 formation for the first time since September, lost a bit of momentum after going behind and the Us had chances to double their lead through substitute Ashley Nadesan and the lively Lewis Simper.

Sutton manager Steve Morison cut a frustrated figure down on the touchline on Saturday as his side's eight-match unbeaten run came to an end following defeat against Hartlepool United. Picture by Getty Images.

placeholder image — Sutton manager Steve Morison cut a frustrated figure down on the touchline on Saturday as his side's eight-match unbeaten run came to an end following defeat against Hartlepool United. Picture by Getty Images.

Anthony Limbrick, who was taking charge for the first time since veteran Lennie Lawrence announced his decision to step down in his favour earlier in the week, made a number of attack-minded changes as the tide of the contest started to turn back in the visitors favour. Adam Campbell had a well-struck shot superbly cleared off the line by Besart Topallaj while Jack Sims made an impressive double save to deny Cleary and then Campbell.

However, Gary Madine drew Pools level with his seventh goal in nine games 14 minutes from time before the unfortunate Jack Taylor turned David Ferguson's corner into his own net with 86 minutes on the clock.

Head coach Anthony Limbrick, who made a positive start after becoming the 16th man to take charge of Pools on a permanent basis in the last decade, felt his side were good value for the three points but former Worthing first team coach Meeney believed the Us would have won the game had they taken their chances after going ahead.

"We're disappointed, very disappointed," he told Sutton's official club website.

"Obviously we've been on a good run. We just felt after going 1-0 up we had two good chances in the second half that we needed to put away to make sure we take the game away from the opposition.

"Then, when we didn't, they just ended up loading up the box. That's something that they're very, very good at - getting the ball forward, keeping it alive, getting it wide and getting balls into the box. We had to suffer at times when we were dealing with that.

"Ultimately, they get one and it gives them momentum and we didn't manage that momentum well enough. Yes, you can talk about fighting fire with fire but we just need to be a little bit more streetwise. We needed to be a little bit better on the ball to allow us to get up the pitch. You are going to suffer, and unfortunately we got a sucker punch towards the end because the momentum just swung."