Pools boss hails star man Loach

Hartlepool United boss Craig Harrison had high praise for his goalkeeper Scott Loach (pictured) after the 0-0 National League draw with Boreham Wood on Saturday.

The visitors were fortunate to escape with a point after Bruno Andrade missed a raft of opportunities to score, including a penalty early in the second half.

Harrison was left disappointed by the failure to land three points but admitted his side were indebted to their goalkeeper once again.

He said: “I’m not happy, that’s the minimum I would have wanted coming into the game - we got the clean sheet that we wanted. I want to win every football game, players want to win every football game, so we’re disappointed we didn’t win. I’m adamant, though, that every point will count when it comes down to it.

“At the end there, we tried to win it, theoretically we’ve got four centre-forwards on the pitch at once, went 4-4-2 to try and win because I thought it was there for us. We got in good positions but didn’t take advantage of it.

“Scott has proved himself tenfold up until now, but you look at it and all the best teams, all the most successful teams, have a good goalkeeper. Going back to my era, how many points did Peter Schmeichel win Manchester United when they were so dominant? Once David Seaman left Arsenal it took them years, there was a big gap, they didn’t win anything.

“On and off the pitch he’s fantastic, a leader on it by example and off it the way he is with everyone. He’s been absolutely fantastic.”

Hartlepool now have two home games to try to climb up the table. They host Aldershot on Saturday and AFC Halfifax a week tomorrow.