“It’s a decision that’s cost us a chance of winning the game” Hartlepool stay second for now after Eastleigh draw

In a contest at the top of the Vanarama National League, both teams had few strong chances to gain three points and a draw is a fair, yet disappointing result for two sides that fought to the last whistle, however, it will be the officiating team who take the biggest loss from the game.

Both teams lined up tactically the same they had in previous games, Hartlepool stuck to a 3-5-2 with Rhys Oates, Tom Crawford, Lewis Cass and Ryan Johnson all making way. Timi Odusina made the straight switch for Lewis Cass, with Jake Cooper making his first appearance for the Pools since signing on loan on the fifth of this month, from Championship outfit, Rotherham United.

Jamie Sterry returned to the side to replace Tom Crawford and Tom White came into the squad in the place of Hartlepool’s only goal-scorer this prior Tuesday, Rhys Oates.

Eastleigh only made one change to their side that last played at Altrincham last Saturday with Joe Partington coming into the side replacing Michael Green. Allowing them to keep their shape in the favoured 4-4-2 that Ben Strevens has favoured this campaign.

The first half was very much dominated by Hartlepool and offered little chance for Eastleigh to go forward and create anything as such. With the Spitfires having very few notable changes in the half, notably topped by a corner that wasn’t dealt with by Hartlepool.

Eastleigh had whipped in a challenging ball into the area, the ball wasn’t dealt with at the first time of asking and resulted in Eastleigh having three or four bites at the chance before finally firing over Ben Killip’s goal.

The first half though was dictated by Hartlepool’s number six, Mark Shelton. The midfielder was deployed in a more advanced role with Tom White’s introduction into the side which saw him pair with Nicky Featherstone in the centre of the park.

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Shelton however, was incredible. Every attack that Hartlepool seemed to have came through him centrally, whether that was through him creating space just in front of Pierce Bird and Andrew Boyce in the Eastleigh’ defence for the two strikers to run in behind, or whether it was to create space for him to pull off an attempt at goal, he played the role brilliantly and potentially could have damaged Eastleigh in the second half.

Another key player for the Pools was Jamie Sterry who was a doubt ahead of Saturday’s game at Victoria Park, yet played the full 90 minutes, his ability to track back whilst also playing in a more advanced role saw the winger able to cause a lot of issues for the Eastleigh left side, especially in the first half.

However, just two minutes into the second half Timi Odusina saw his second yellow of the afternoon for a challenge that post-match Dave Challinor saw as a massive turning point within the game and a dismissal which wasn’t deserved at all.

“Their lad then goes through and hits the deck with no contact and Timi is an honest kid, there is no contact.”

When speaking to Eastleigh’s website post-game Strevens said,

“I was just coming out so I didn’t see because it happened that quickly.”

The coaches had a brief discussion following the final whistle and when speaking to @DomScurr Challinor revealed,

“I spoke to Ben [Strevens] their manager afterwards and he agreed. There was eight yellow cards and probably only one, which was Tom White’s to stop the break from a counter attack which is a smart foul and you take a yellow. There’s no issue with that but all the other ones are nonsense.”

When speaking to the Hartlepool United Media Team post-match DC stated how,

“That decision has cost us a big chance of winning the game”

It’s now two games straight that Dave Challinor has seen one of his centre-halves sent off, in games that they were in control of and potentially could have taken all three points from if the north-east side hadn’t have had to change their system to a deep block.

The sending off saw Mark Shelton replaced by Rhys Oates and saw Sherry and Ferguson drop back meaning that the Pools played a 4-2-3 for effectively the entirety of the second half. This came at a massive detriment to the side’s attacking prowess due to Sherry not being able to drive forward and the forced substitution of Mark Shelton and meant that the attacking was solely through the front three rather than being spread across five players in the 3-5-2.

I was lucky enough to ask DC whether this second dismissal of a centre-half in as many games could see his side potentially playing a 4-3-3 system against King’s Lynn on Tuesday evening.

“We’ve got Ryan Johnson coming back, Jamie Sterry’s got through the game, potentially got Ryan Donaldson coming back, we’ll have bodies to sort of play the system we want to play, depending on what we decide to do […] We played a back four at the start of the season, so we’re pretty flexible within that, but hopefully we can pick a team we want to try and win on Tuesday”

However, nothing should be taken away from Eastleigh in the second half. Strevens’ men came out with an intention to bring all three-point back to the south coast with them and a player that was key to this was Joe Tomlinson.

In the first half, the full-back was rarely given the chance to break due to the excellent pressing and defensive shape of Hartlepool’s 3-5-2. Following Sterry’s more subdued role in the second half though Tomlinson was given the chance to be deployed in the more advanced areas of the pitch meaning that there were multiple chances to create chances and he was pivotal to the Spitfires’ domination within the second half.

Pools’ fans will be devastated that Oates wasn’t able to score his second goal in as many games in the dying embers of the game following a fast counter-attack, a long ball reached the Englishman and set him through on goal, a brilliant save from Joe McDonnall would match the strike and see the ball wide for a corner, but nonetheless was a brilliant chance for the home side to extend their home winning streak to nine but it just wasn’t to be.

It is definitely a tough result for his squad to take due to the first half domination, but a good point following the dismissal, but they have a massive chance on Tuesday to pick up three points against a King’s Lynn side who currently sit 21st in the league.

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All in all, an end to end game that without a doubt will be overshadowed due to the poor officiating once again highlighted by Dave Challinor.