Pools Live to Fight Another Day

Hartlepool United had gone 8 games without a goal or win but on Saturday they ended that horrific run of form and recorded a 2-0 victory over fellow strugglers Bury as Andy Monkhouse scored a brace and in doing so have climbed off the foot of the table and are now only 5 points off surviving the drop with only 3 games remaining in the season.
 

John Hughes gifted a start to the young teenager Luke James who has really impressed hartlepool fans and the coaching staff at Victoria park when he put in some great performances for the reserves recently where he has 4 goals in 2 starts for the reserves which prompted john Hughes (hartlepool manager) to start the future star.

John Hughes decided to play a 4-4-2 formation against fellow strugglers Bury which allowed his side to play more freely but this left pools more open at the back and they did concede in the first half but the referee correctly disallowed the goal.

Andy Monkhouse broke the deadlock on 42 minutes where a good delivery found the 'pools winger in the 6 yard box where he headed the ball over the line. Despite claims from the Bury players and managers that it didn't cross the referee correctly gave the goal to John Hughes' side.

Things went from bad to worse for the traveling fans when Craig Fagan was given his marching orders from the referee for a rash challenge on 'pools defender Peter Hartley on the 45th minute leaving the Shakers to play all of the second half with 10 men.

Hartlepool threatened again early in the second half when Jon' Franks had a long range effort which rattled the crossbar. Bury rarely threatened and their best chance of the game fell to Nicky Ajose but his shot whistled past the post. In the 70th minute Andy Monkhouse popped up again to put the game to bed when his long range header somehow found it's way into the back of the net.

This result leaves John Hughes side 5 points off the survival with only 3 games left, meanwhile Bury have a game in hand over hartlepool but were leapfrogged by hartlepool after this result.

Karl Curran (@currankarl)