On the day the Cherries were celebrating a hundred years of football at Dean Court, hopes were high of a win to mark the anniversary.
It all looked good to start with as Bignall made a burst through, sadly the keeper blocked with his legs to conceded a corner. Sadly the corner came to nothing.
Despite good flowing football from the Cherries, they didn't create too many clear cut chances to test the keeper, with Hartlepool more than capable of getting men back to thwart their hosts, despite the Cherries best attempt to brake their visitors down.
Pugh thought he'd managed to get himself a clear run at goal. Sadly the linesman in front of the East Stand left it very late to raise his flag to indicate offside - much to the derision of those in the East Stand.
Hartlepool managed to get themselves in to the game with some neat passing play to press the Cherries back. James Brown found himself a in a good position to turn and shoot, the effort just clipping the top right hand of the goal frame - a warning of what was about to come.
Just after the half hour, Brown, again, performed the same shot, but this time kept the ball slightly lower to fire the ball in to the top right of the goal. A lovely strike similar to Josh McQuoid's final goal against Yeovil last time out.
Shortly after the handbags were out as the match officials managed to loose complete control of the game. The Hartlepool keeper was trying to control the ball, so Arter went in to challenge and rather clattered the keeper. The ref didn't blow up at this point. The keeper, for some inexplicable reason, decided to fully elbow Arter in the face. Needless to say the handbags were out as the opposing set of players wanted to take matters in to their own hands!!
Once the ref managed to regain some control he booked Arter for the initial challenge, but only booked Kean in the Hartlepool goal. In the opinion of everyone in the ground, it should have been red and should have been a penalty as the elbow offence was inside the penalty area! Only Mr McDermid will know why he clearly bottled it. Hollands also talked himself in to a yellow card for remonstrating with the linesman.
HT: 0-1
Try as they might in the second period, the Cherries didn't have too many shots on target to test the keeper. Chances were created, but were squandered, either over the cross bar, just past the post from the likes to Taylor, Pugh, Pearce and Robinson.
To be fair, Hartlepool United didn't create too much for Jon Stewart to worry about either.
Feeney livened things up when he came on, with a sparkling run with in the first few minutes of coming on. Sadly, his introduction didn't have quite the impact Eddie Howe must have hoped for.
Mention to Danny Hollands and Anton Robinson in midfield who were tireless in midfield with their work rate covering every blade of grass on the pitch to try and create the opportunity for an equaliser. Sadly it didn't quite come off.
For whatever reason, the Cherries just didn't get it together this afternoon as the match died on its' feet towards the end of the game.
For sheer industry and endeavour, I am going to award my man of the match award to Anton Robinson.
AFCB: Stewart, Smith, Partington, Pearce, Wiggins, Arter, Robinson, Hollands, Pugh, Fletcher, Bignall
Subs: Bartley, Purches, Cummings, Bradbury, Taylor (for Bignall, HT), Feeney (for Arter, 54 mins), Symes (for Fletcher, 75 mins)
Andy Burton, Portsmouth