Maidenhead United 2 Hartlepool United 1

HARTLEPOOL United’s previous live television appointment ended in despair, disappointment and a low point in the club’s history.

So after relegation from the Football League in May, their first appearance in front of the National League cameras ended in despair, disappointment and a probable low point the club’s history.

Can losing at Maidenhead United, a part-time team in Conference South last season, be anything else?

Three games into the new season and Pools are floundering with one point from a possible nine.

They need to win tomorrow’s game with Chester at Victoria Park before things start to already really look wrong.

Make no mistake this defeat was every bit deserved as any of last season.

Maidenhead were, like Dover the week before, hard-working and direct. Doing the basics in football is enough to beat Pools.

Boss Craig Harrison said: “Maidenhead didn’t surprise me, we should be better. Maidenhead were just what Maidenhead were all about.’’

On early viewings, the National League isn’t rocket science.

Dover beat Pools by playing three big lads in the middle of defence and playing long on the break to a quick forward.

Maidenhead did with thanks to a proper little and large partnership up front who they were never afraid of utilising.

Pools lined up with three centre-halves and a five-man midfield. It was their third different starting formation and, for the third game they altered their set-up at half-time.

By then they trailed by a single goal – just as they have in their other games this season.

The goal conceded was as basic as it gets.

A long goalkeeper’s punt was flicked on by the big man for the little man to latch onto and finish.

Did Pools put an extra centre-half in to combat that threat? Home boss Alan Devonshire admitted his biggest surprise of the day was that Pools played with three at the back.

“We know what the division is all about. We knew the standard, the coaches know, the players know it – we have enough players in there who know what it’s like.

“The standard is one long ball from box to box which we haven’t defended and next thing we know it’s in the back of the net. It’s standard football isn’t it.

“It’s about our standards and us and what we do.’’

So Pools changed at the break and went to a 4-4-2 set-up. They did start to get more of a foothold in the game and were better for it.

But any hope they had was evaporated with one slack pass.

On a pitch which hadn’t been cut or watered for a week to stop Pools’ apparent passing game, centre-half Louis Laing’s square ball inside his own half was short of Scott Harrison.

In nipped Dave Tarpey and after he scored 44 times last season he wasn’t going to miss this one, crashing in a confident finish.

It was game over for Pools. They changed again, Nicky Deverdics trying to engineer an improvement with his introduction.

As a midfielder with a National League pedigree, he deserves a chance to show what he can do. There’s a lack of creativity in the side, a lack of authority and he can at least spot openings and play forward passes.

Pools did get one back, as Padraig Amond netted from the spot after Carl Magnay was fouled.

With four minutes to go they did press for a leveller and came to some sort of life after the game seemed long gone.

Jake Cassidy flicked on a Deverdics cross, it flew across goal – and while Amond would normally be stood there to pounce, the striker and scorer was off the pitch after needing treatment after being clattered.

A point would have robbed the home side of a deserved win. “Two-nil to the part-timers’’ sang the home crowd earlier.

It was hard to see who the part-time side really was. One team was sharper, more willing, more able than the other.

At the final whistle, the Pools players were greeted by as much abuse as they were praise and fair play to the members of the squad who spoke with disappointed fans outside a pub near to the ground after the game.

Patience is wearing thin already because supporters have been let down too many times in the last few years.

Skipper Carl Magnay said the players have drawn a line under the first three games.

He admitted: “We spoke, we have talked and identified problems. It’s not the start we wanted. But there’s only so long we can say it’s a new group and we need time to get it right.

“Tuesday has to be a completely different Hartlepool.

“And everyone is encouraging each other – we all know what we are capable of and we aren’t getting too down about it.

“We are confident we will get it right and we need to play a way that suits us and suits this level.

“We got better as the game went on and we conceded first in every game, which is unacceptable. It means we are slow starters, we are tentative and we haven’t executed the manager’s plans.

“Everyone is behind each other and we are positive. When we get it right we will kick on.’’