BROMLEY 2 HARTLEPOOL 0

FIVE games in and the Vanarama National League is starting to turn into a living nightmare for Hartlepool United and Craig Harrison.

Pools, seen by many as the biggest club at this level, were again given a fifth-tier lesson yesterday, this time by minnows Bromley.

But further to the shambles on the park, one of the club’s star men Padraig Amond is also starting to turn the club into a mess off it.

Amid interest from League Two side Newport County, manager Craig Harrison revealed that the Irishman made himself unavailable for the trip south, even though no bid had been accepted.

It was the bitterest of blows for the manager, who has overseen his side failing to win any of their five games to date this season.

While there were green shoots of recovery at Victoria Park in midweek against Chester City, they look like nothing more than a false dawn now.

Despite starting off the brighter of the two sides Pools again conjured a defensive calamity to allow Josh Rees to tap home from close range shortly after the half hour mark.

It was 2-0 shortly after the break when another catalogue of errors resulted in the ball dropping kindly for Luke Wanadio on the edge of the area. While the build-up was scrappy, the finish was anything but, Wanadio cracking home from 25 yards on the half volley to seal the three points.

The Lilywhites were not finished there, though.

Wanadio hammered a low effort onto the foot of Scott Loach’s post soon after as the home side were rampant against a gutless, disjointed Pools XI.

Liam Donnelly, restored to the Hartlepool team in place of outcast Amond, was on hand to make sure the score was not more ugly late on, as he turned a ball over his own bar when it looked certain to result in a third and final nail in the Pools coffin.

Manager Harrison admits he was disappointed with Amond’s unprofessional move, which is designed to force a move for the player who has made it clear to Pools he does not want to play for them at this level.

“Podge (Amond) came to me on Friday morning, before we travelled down for the game, and made it clear he was not in the right frame of mind to be involved,” he said. “So he made himself unavailable for selection or to travel.

“We need to talk about it and look at it. We need to communicate over the next few days and work out exactly where we are.”

Harrison was keen not to use the Amond situation as an excuse for his players’ performance at Hayes Lane, though.

He accepts it was just not good enough from his Hartlepool side on the day.

“We have done enough in the last two games but we have to be more hard to beat,” he said.

“It is no good playing for 45 -minute patches.

“We have done well for one half in games and then not the other.

“Our performance on the day was just not good enough.”