POOL RESPONSE IS ‘MAGNIFICENT’
GRAEME Lee praised the resilience of his Hartlepool side after they bounced back from a midweek defeat to Bradford to beat high-flying Newport.
Omar Bogle’s own-goal gave the hosts an early lead, before Jamie Sterry and Luke Molyneux fired the visitors ahead. Rob Street restored parity only for Neill Byrne to seal the points for the visitors.
“It was a magnificent response from us,” said Lee.
“It hurts us when we lose, and the performance last time out was flat. We got a great response tonight.
“The work rate, the intensity, and the effort was excellent. That’s what we are capable of.
“I’ve said it loads of times, when we’ve got this level of work rate, and intensity then we can beat any side.
“We’ve come away to one of the top teams in the league, and we’ve matched them.
“We’ve come away to one of the best sides in the league and won. It was a fantastic and entertaining game. We moved the ball very well, and to get a response after we conceded goals was the most pleasing thing for me. It was an all-round fantastic performance.”
After a slow start, Newport went into the lead in the 16th minute. Matty Dolan hooked a free-kick into the penalty box. James Clarke connected, with the pressure forcing Hartlepool’s Bogle to nudge it into the back of his own net.
The away side found an equaliser against the run of play in the 35th minute when Sterry’s right-footed shot beat Joe Day. The visitors took the lead ten minutes later when David Ferguson’s through ball released Molyneux, who drilled the ball past Day to give Lee’s side a 2-1 half-time lead.
Street levelled the scores after 71 minutes when he drilled the ball into the net. But just two minutes later Nicky Featherstone’s cross found Byrne, who headed the visitors back into the lead.
James Rowberry’s men pushed for the late leveller, but Scot Bennett’s ambitious bicycle kick from the edge of the box that was held by Ben Killip was the closest they came to making it 3-3.
This was Newport’s first defeat in seven, but their manager Rowberry insists his side are still in a good place.He said: “There were certain moments where our defence let us down.
“We needed to defend a little bit better as a collective, but we will learn from it. We’ll dust ourselves down and go again.
“We’ve had a good period of games where we’ve had some decent results and put ourselves in a very good position in the league.
“We’ve actually had a good return from the recent batch of games we’ve had.
“I’m really proud of them in how we’ve done over this period, but we’ve still got areas we need to improve on.”