Spoils shared at Spotland!!!

Hartlepool start their season with a 0-0 draw at newly promoted Rochdale – and to be honest will look back at this game and see it as 2 points dropped.

Pools started brightly and had 2 chances within the first 7 minutes to take the lead. Joe Gamble forced Rochdale keeper Lillis into making a good save early on which was followed up with a Monkhouse shot being cleared off the line mintues later – this was a sign of things to come!

Rochdale looked nervous throughout making simple mistakes but when they got it right looked dangerous against a suspect Pools defence. At the heart of everything Rochdale did was there midfield no.8 Gary Jones and it was him who drew Flinders into a good save after 20 minutes pushing his effort round the post.

Pools continued to apply pressure – James Brown showed glipses of class and had a great curling effort midway through the first half deflected just wide of the post and Bjornsson had a powerful shot straight at Lillis in which was a poor display from the big man up front on his own. At half time he was replaced by Adam Boyd with Pools changing to 4-4-2 to the delight of the travelling fans. Almost straight from the restart Sweeney made a great run into the box but only to see his header go just over the top. Then again just before the hour make Sweeney had a fanstatic effort from 25yards tipped over. Boyd and Monkhouse then both had chances to put the Pools into a deserved lead but again couldn’t break through a well disciplined defence.

It was turning into a frustrating day for the Pools and Rochdale nearly pinched all 3 points when a scrappy corner wasn’t cleared by Pools which lead to Anthony Elding blazing over from 6 yards. It was then Hartlepool’s turn to have a late chance. From a swinging corner a Collins header was cleared again off the line and the game was up.

The Stats show Rochdale having 57% of possession but only creating 7 chances in comparsion with Pools 13 – 9 of which was on target, already you can see Pools having a problem scoring goals this season. Hartlepool new signings Evan Horwood at left back and Paul Murray in central midfield impressed the South East Poolies contingent at the game with solid and passionate performances.
Chris Turner rued the missed chances and was disappointed not to have won the game. He stated: "We're very, very pleased with the overall performance. I thought we looked a strong, solid, well-organised side but we need to start scoring goals because, obviously, if you don't score goals you don't win games."

SOUTH EAST POOLIES MAN OF THE MATCH:
Paul Murray – very solid in the middle of the park making several good tackles and influencing play going forward.

Report by Si 'Fluffy' Belsham.