Super Sam pulls plug on Pools
DAVE CHALLINOR labelled his side’s defending ‘kamikaze’ and ‘shocking’ after they suffered back-to-back defeats.
After 15 games without defeat, Hartlepool United have lost successive games at a time when it matters.
Pools now sit fourth and are scrapping to finish second or third in the table.
Sam Barratt made the most of Pools’ woes with a clinical hat-trick.
The Magpies, down to ten men for more than half the game, deserved the win with some organised defending and positive attacking.
Pools have three games left and Challinor said: “We are all frustrated. It’s disappointing. You can be angry and all that goes with it.
“We made really poor defensive mistakes which cost us goals and that affected confidence throughout the team.
“It’s bog standard defending and I’ve said if you can’t defend balls like that in this league you won’t have a very good career.
“I didn’t see it coming, the mistake we made and credit to Maidenhead. The goals we conceded were shocking and defensively we were all over the place.’’
Pools’ keeper Henrich Ravas pushed away an early goalbound header from Barratt, before the same player was in on goal and wastefully curled over.
And on 16 minutes, the visitors went ahead as a routine ball forward caught the defence flat and Danilo Orsi never looked like passing up the chance to score his 16th of the season.
Pools didn’t let the setback affect them and the reward came on 29 minutes with a majestic piece of skill from Rhys Oates.
He ran at the defence, appeared ready to shoot, danced ahead, turned and fired across keeper Rhys Lovett.
Buoyed by the goal, David Ferguson tried to follow Oates with a run at goal from deep, but was denied by Lovett.
However, another piece of slack Pools defending, as
Timi Odusina was caught asleep and the ball fell for Barratt to tap in on 39 minutes.
Maidenhead were a man down on 42 minutes, Rhyeem Sheckleford shown a red card for a challenge on Harvey Saunders, a decision that infuriated the visitors, who had just cause to disagree with referee Martin Woods.
Two minutes after the restart and the ten men extended their lead – with more defensive horrors playing a part.
Barratt latched onto a long kick from keeper Lovett to crack home.
And he completed a 15-minute hat-trick, this time with no help from the defence as he cracked in a majestic low drive.
It took until the 85th minute to get a goal back as former Chester striker Danny Elliott headed in.
Winning boss Alan Devonshire beamed: “We were brilliant today – absolutely brilliant. A sending off we weren’t sure about, but that won’t take away from what we did.
“Hartlepool were in contention for promotion and we showed what we can do.”