Report: No Goals, No Points For Hartlepool

Hartlepool United ended the evening pointless and goalless after defeat to a poor Oldham Athletic side

Loan striker Ryan Noble was thrust straight into first team action after joining from Sunderland earlier today, he was joined by James Poole with the pair replacing Ritchie Humphreys and Jack Baldwin as Pools looked to end a run of three games without a goal.

It was a decent start to the game, with Oldham's impressive winger Chris Taylor testing Scott Flinders while Antony Sweeney's header flew over the bar at the other end.

But, much like many games earlier in the season, Pools switched off early in the half and conceded what was to be the winning goal. A neat ball from Kieran Lee left Pools' defence stood still as Jean Yves Mvoto hit home from close range.

But the best chance of the game fell to Ryan Noble soon afterwards. He got on the end of Andy Monkhouse's flick-on with just Oldham keeper Alex Cisak to beat but fired his effort straight at the goalkeeper. A miss that prove costly in a game of few chances.

The home side were seeing more of the ball but were far too eager to simply pump long balls forward, with Noble doing a lot of running, but not seeing enough of the ball.

A clever freekick routine saw between Neil Austin and Evan Horwood saw the latter fire an effort under the wall, but that was well saved by Cisak as Pools struggled to break down their opponents.

James Poole struggled to get into the game while Andy Monkhouse had an evening to forget as Pools struggled to put any kind of move together. Chances, like Evan Horwood's whipped in cross which narrowly missed Antony Sweeney's boot, were few and far between.

Horwood again nearly created a goal when his corner kick found Peter Hartley peeling off a defender at the back post, but his header was hacked off the line.

The introduction of Adam Boyd saw the game take a noticeable downturn in pace as Pools abandoned any kind of shape whatsoever, although most of Scott Flinders' kicks headed straight off the field anyway.

Even so, there was a late chance for Noble as he chased the ball down the channels and sent a strike towards goal from a tight angle, sadly his shot ended the wrong side of the post and Pools ended the game with their goalless run stretching to four games and their winless one to five.

FT: Hartlepool 0 Oldham 1 Hartlepool: Flinders, Austin, Collins, Hartley, Horwood, Sweeney, Murray (Richards 72), Liddle, Poole (Boyd 63), Monkhouse, Noble
Subs not used: Rafferty, Humphreys, Baldwin

Oldham Athletic: Cisak, Yves Mvoto, Brown, Reid, Adeyemi, Taylor, Lee, M'Changama, Mellor, Kuqi, Bunn
Subs not used: Bouzanis, Millar, Hughes, Winchester, Parkes

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