HARTLEPOOL United didn’t show enough responsibility in dealing with Newport County’s stoppage time winner and Antony Sweeney has remonstrated that to his players.

Pools were hit by a late winner when Dom Telford’s stooping header handed the away side all three points as they lost their first home game of the season.

David Ferguson had brought them level with a wonderful free-kick in the second half after Courtney Baker-Richardson’s header.

Pools looked like they were going to go on and win the game after Ferguson’s free-kick but Telford’s winner inflicts a first defeat at the Suit Direct Stadium in 13.

It’s the first defeat for Sweeney during his interim spell as manager. A man who made over 300 appearances for the club in Sweeney says that in the latter stages of the game, Pools needed to do better to see the game out.

He said: “On the balance of play both teams had chances. When you get to that stage of the game that we were in there, sometimes you’ve just got to take what’s on offer.

“Yes we wanted to get three points but a point at home, extending the unbeaten run at home against a team in and around us, you’ll go and settle for that.

“Few mistakes within the second goal that us as management staff and players are not happy about. If you make them mistakes consecutively, the chances are it’s going to hurt you in the end.

“We say to the players all the time that you can have formations and style of play, you can get over complicated at times, especially in set play situations, it’s you vs me.

“You’ve got a responsibility to stop that man scoring, we didn’t. We allowed him to get a header. The other side of it, we had three or four chances to do the same thing and don’t take them.

“They are the things in football, they are the fine margins that are the difference between three points, one point or coming away sitting here with no points.”