Brown and Porter seal a comfortable win for Pools
Hartlepool United 2 Yeovil Town 0
IN JUST 48 hours, the contrasting
nature of Hartlepool United
has been there for all to see.
While on Saturday they fell to
a slack and sloppy defeat at
Crewe, yesterday they were untroubled
in comfortably seeing
off Yeovil at Victoria Park.
Pools are now 13 points ahead
of fourth bottom, while seven
adrift of seventh in a season of
contradictory fortunes, performances
and emotions.
Strikers Joel Porter and
James Brown got the goals, as
Pools eased to home win number
11 and their first victory over
Yeovil at the fourth attempt.
"It could have been far more
than the two we scored, but we
didn't take our chances,'' said
manager Danny Wilson. "In the
second half we got the second
goal which was a killer for them.
They left things open a bit but
we didn't capitalise.
"But it's a clean sheet and
overall I'm delighted.''
The only downside for Pools
was the loss of Sam Collins and
Richard Barker in the opening
stages through injury.
Both could miss most of the
six games remaining.
"We had to make a couple of
early changes and it's been a
fairly testing season for us with
injuries,'' said Wilson. "We don't
know how bad Sam is yet. He
may have broken a couple of ribs
and Richie has a hamstring
problem. I hope I'm wrong, but
we may be missing them a while.
"The important part is that
we have players back and and
available again now. James
Brown isn't fully match fit yet,
but you can see how he can contribute.
"We had to make changes,
when perhaps we didn't want to.
James could have had a hat-trick
and was a bit rusty at times. But
remember he hasn't been playing
much for the last seven
weeks or so.
"We played some nice football
and that's how we try and play
the game. They scrambled away
a few efforts and we caused
them problems in areas we felt
we could do that.''
He added: "James has played
a lot of football in the last week,
we didn't want to use him as
early as we did. We thought he
would get on at some time, but
not that early. In an ideal world
we would have waited.
"I wanted Richie fresh for
today and that's why I didn't use
him on Saturday - and when he
was on the pitch today he looked
like he had enjoyed a break.
"But some of the boys have
had a heavy schedule and they
are out on their feet now.''
Porter struck a post with a low
drive from 18 yards, Andy
Monkhouse took the rebound
and saw his shot charged down
by Terry Skiverton and, when
the ball was returned into the
area, Barker hooked a volley
over.
The strikers then combined
on a counter attack, which led to
Porter's attempted chip from 20
yards being gathered by Scott
Flinders.
Micky Nelson was one of
three players dropped from Saturday's
loss at Crewe, but it wasn't
long before he was back in
the fray, replacing Collins on 13
minutes.
Four minutes later Barker's
game was over, ended by a hamstring
injury on his return from
knee ligament trouble, with
Brown put up front.
Brown put Pools ahead on 29
minutes, after a bout of comedy
defending from the visitors and
a some quick thinking from
Pools.
Keeper Flinders sliced his
clearance under pressure from
Porter and full-back Terrell
Forbes got into a muddle trying
to keep it in play.
Andy Monkhouse took a quick
throw and found Porter, who
bounced beyond Skiverton and
pulled his cross low for Brown to
drill in his 12th of the season.
Arran Lee-Barrett made an
important stop soon afterwards
to keep out a Marcus Stewart
header. That was about it as far
as Stewart was concerned, the
former Sunderland marksman
barely involved from wide.
It was a long wait before any
more goalmouth action or incident
in the game. When it came,
Porter made it 2-0.
Following a tidy game of
keepball on the left side,
Humphreys backheeled for
Monkhouse to cross low and the
ball rolled for the striker to drill
in from ten yards.
Next time Pools linked up in
style on the left it was even better
on the eye - Porter's deft flick
putting Humphreys in, although
Brown's goalbound shot
was blocked.
* Former Pools goalkeeper
Dimi Konstantopoulos is expected
to sign for Nottingham
Forest on loan today.
9:15am Tuesday 25th March 2008
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