Hartlepool United0
Sheffield Wednesday1
WITH their unbeaten run at an end, Mick Wadsworth has challenged his Hartlepool United players to go again.
Pool lost at home to Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend, their first reverse of the season. Coming ten games in, it is fair to say the season so far has not been a bad one.
In front of 6,800 fans, Pool and the Owls served up a frantic encounter which hardly let up from start to finish.
Last season, Pool were thumped 5-0 by the same opposition at Victoria Park. This time there was nothing in it – a marker of the progress Pool have made under Wadsworth (pictured right) in 12 months.
There was very little between the teams this time, a goal headed in by Reda Johnson at the near post from a long throw proving decisive. With a trip to Notts County next on the fixture list on Sunday, Wadsworth said: “If we let this get us down we are not as strong and tough as I think we are. We will get over it and start working for next Sunday.
“We are fighting at the right end of the table. I have always said if we can stay in that top half going into the New Year then I will be satisfied.
“With their resources and their financial clout, Wednesday would expect to be and need to be up there.
“They have themselves sorted out after a dodgy few years and have brought very good players to the club – things we cannot dream of in terms of outlay, but I don’t think they are better than us.”
He added: “It is all about how they react now, we have to get a result at Notts County and show this was a one-off and get back on that unbeaten route. The players are as low as a dachshund’s belly.
“They are disappointed it has ended but they have given everything.”
Pool’s only problem was trying to keep the ball away from visiting central defender Rob Jones.
The former Gateshead man won everything in the air when Pool pressed incessantly in the second-half.
Jones and co did get opened up on two occasions, however.
A Nobby Solano cross found Antony Sweeney unmarked ten yards out, but last season’s top scorer did not get his radar fixed and pushed a free header wide. Solano headed over the bar from a long, bouncing throw, Evan Horwood had a goalbound header blocked and Andy Monkhouse struck the frame of the goal with a low, right-footed shot.
Johnson’s goal (the first Pool have conceded from open play at home this season) was a rare effort on target, with Scott Flinders pushing a Ben Marshall free-kick over from distance.
Wadsworth added: “We needed to change it at half-time. I did not take Paul Murray off because he was playing badly, we needed to get some fresh impetus and have a little more athleticism throughout the team.
“We knew it was not a clever-pass game. The changes worked well.”
HARTLEPOOL: Flinders, Austin, Collins, Hartley, Humphreys (Poole 71), Solano, Murray (Horwood 46), Liddle, Sweeney, Nish, Boyd (Monkhouse 60). Subs (not used): Rafferty, Luscombe. Booked: Collins.
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY: Bywater, Buxton, Batth, Rob Jones, Reda Johnson, Lines, Semedo, O’Connor (Sedgwick 84), Marshall, McGoldrick (O’Grady 58), Madine (Palmer 67). Subs (not used): O’Donnell, Reynolds.
Booked: Madine, Sedgwick. Goal Reda Johnson 33.
Referee: Graham Salisbury (Lancs) Attendance: 6,800
