ANTONY Sweeney emerged from the Victoria Park dressing room deflated. He had scored the best goal of his career and netted twice after being restored to the position he is happiest in. But, for the Hartlepool United midfielder, it counted for nothing.

Hartlepool fan Jeff Stelling celebrates Sweeney's goals on Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports

Two Sweeney goals to the good and in control against Millwall, Pools had one eye on League One safety.

This performance was everything the previous one wasn’t – determined, organised and willing. The reaction the manager demanded from his players had arrived.

But so too had the old failings.

Asking for a 90-minute performance is asking a bit much and, while Neil Harris deserves every bit of praise for his stunning nine-minute hat-trick which turned the game around, each goal could have been prevented.

More goals have been scored at Victoria Park than any at other League One arena this season and Pools are the second top home scorers in the table.

The problem is they are also at the top (bottom?) end of the rankings when it comes to conceding goals. The soft underbelly remains and is stopping Pools from getting the wins and points they need to stay away from the bottom four.

“I don’t think anyone could believe the result – we went into the dressing room after the game and looked at the results as if we had just won,’’ admitted Sweeney, who was outstanding in his preferred central midfield role.

“I don’t think as a team we felt under pressure and yet we conceded three goals. They were three good finishes and they all fell to the wrong fella from our point of view.

“Errors have cost us and that’s been the story of the season, but it’s different players making them all the time.’’ The first error came from referee Trevor Kettle. He managed to turn a foul on Ben Clark into a free-kick against the Pools midfielder and, with the ball moved forward, Millwall got another free-kick, a correct award this time, on the edge of the penalty area.

Quite why Arran Lee-Barrett stood so far across his goal and invited Harris to guide in into the net is open to debate. A covering defender on the line would have prevented it.

But, at 2-1 up, Pools wasted a chance to make it three. Joel Porter found Sweeney in the penalty area and he passed to Ritchie Jones.

The right midfielder should have scored from a similar position three weeks earlier at Colchester but took a touch and was smothered by the keeper, and the same thing happened here.

Within seconds, Harris was skirting around Micky Nelson and turning in his second goal.

When Sam Collins horribly fluffed his attempted clearance, and got the ball caught between his feet, the last person Pools needed it to fall to was Harris.

And, as clinically as he bagged his other two, the halftime substitute snaffled up his third goal in nine minutes.

The turnaround was complete.

It knocked the life out of Pools who, after such an invigorating opening hour, were left deflated. They didn’t have enough life or spirit left to fight back.

Pools were all over Millwall in the first half. The visitors conceded a penalty after 108 seconds, but Joel Porter’s kick was kept out by David Forde.

Both sides were full of energy and workrate in the opening half, before Pools took the upper hand with two goals.

“We were in control for an hour and had a couple of chances to kill the game off,’’ said Sweeney.

“I was in central midfield and enjoying playing there. I was able to get forward, which is my game and I had c h a n c e s , but it’s a w e i r d feeling – I would have given it all up for a win.

“It was an enjoyable game, but it was a strange feeling to come off at the end after losing it. We should have been buoyant in the dressing room after playing so well, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it flatter, even though we played so badly in the game before, we have been done 3-2.

“By playing so well it shows how bad the Cheltenham game was. The pressure was on us to get a result after that.

Luckily enough we are still in the same position as a few other teams around us have lost – but how long is that going to last? Others have games in hand on us and we cannot be relying on that.’’ The outcome overshadowed Sweeney’s goals. The first came when he latched on to a clearance and struck a ball truer than anyone has at Victoria Park since Hugh Robertson was smashing them in from all over the park.

“I didn’t really have much time to think about it, which is a bonus because when you have time to think it usually ends up in Morrison’s car park!’’ he admitted.

His second came within minutes, tearing ahead from deep in the manner he built his reputation and cooly netting.