Both the town and the ground have improved in the passing years, admittedly from a low starting point in both cases. The day was bitterly cold (is it ever anything else here?), but fortunately the North East had escaped much of the snow blanketing the rest of the country.
Hartlepool operate a policy of cheap season ticket prices, which is commendable, but charge exorbitant prices for the occasional attendees (including away fans), which isn’t. One change was made from the side that defeated Exeter in midweek, Malone earning a start at the expense of McDermott.
Both sides look to pass the ball, which made for some pleasant midfield play, but when the ball got to the final third defences dominated. The best first half chances fell to Bournemouth. Tubbs was narrowly off target from 20m yards, Thomas fired high over the bar after being teed up by Pugh, and Cook had a header from a corner cleared off the line. The latter was as close as either side would come to a goal in the game.
The second half was similarly lacking in incident. McDermott and Arter replaced Malone and MacDonald around the hour mark, Arter soon incurring the wrath of the home crowd by making a rapid recovery from “injury” after earning James a booking. Thomas had a long range effort saved and Nish had a good chance from close in but put the ball over the bar under pressure from the rapidly advancing Flahavan, and the game petered out tamely. Some of the locals thought that we had looked the more likely to score, but 0-0 was about right for the entertainment on offer.
Tubbs worked hard but did little to suggest that he is worth the expenditure, or even that he has improved significantly from his previous unimpressive spells with the club, but it’s early days and most of our acquisitions have been pretty shrewd since Steve Gritt got involved. Malone remaining fit for a spell is likely to be essential if we are to have any chance of making the play-offs.
Stephane Zubar dominated, won almost every tackle and header.
AFCB: Flahavan, Francis, Cook, Zubar, Daniels, Pugh, MacDonald, Gregory, Malone, Tubbs, W Thomas
Subs: D Thomas, Purches, Arter (for MacDonald, 63 mins), McDermott (for Malone, 63 mins), Fletcher (for W Thomas, 82 mins)
Richie Barker, Leyton