POOLS BOSS KEV FUMES AT PENALTY DECISION
HARTLEPOOL United were left hanging on for a draw after Chris Maguire’s controversial late penalty earned Eastleigh a precious point in their bid to stay clear of the drop zone.
Pools led for an hour through Joe Grey and looked as though they might cling on to the win points.
But the game turned on a 73rd-minute handball decision by referee Aaron Jackson which left Pools coach Kevin Phillips fuming.
Nicky Featherstone was adjudged to have handled a rising shot from Maguire, who drilled his resulting penalty kick low to Pete Jameson’s right and into the bottom corner to make it 1-1.
“How the referee has given a penalty I do not know,” Phillips fumed. “I’ve watched the incident back and Nicky’s trying to protect his face from a shot which Maguire has smashed at him from ten yards. It was was going over the bar in any case.”
Maguire’s equaliser left Pools to ride out a frenetic last quarter when goalkeeper Jameson, on loan from Harrogate and only recently restored to the side after injury, produced a string of fine saves.
Just before the penalty he pulled off a superb save to deny hot shot Paul McCallum and, after that, he prevented two or three seeminly certain goals, none more so than to thwart substitute Enzio Boldewijn the the last of seven minutes of added time.
The draw was certainly crucial to Eastleigh in an increasingly congested scrap for survival at the bottom of the table, where just three points separate seven clubs immediately above Spitfires.
“We’ve got a critical Easter ahead with a Good Friday visit to Woking then Maidenhead United, two points below us, coming to the Silverlake, but I took a lot of confidence from the character we showed in the second half at Barnet in midweek and again today,” said Eastleigh boss Kelvin Davis. “It was a game we could have won in the end and, but for their goalkeeper, probably would have.”
Chasing their first win in four games, Hartlepool largely dominated the first half and deservedly led through a slick 12th minute goal by the impressive Grey.
Tom Crawford and the eye-catching Middlesbrough loanee Terrell Agyemang teed up the chance down the left and Grey converted from close range for his ninth goal of the season.
Torrential rain and a hailstorm made conditions difficult for 15 minutes or so leading up to half-time, a period when a superb run by Grey almost led to a second goal. Then Callum Cooke ballooned a great chance high into the stand.
Substitute Boldewijn’s introduction enlivened Eastleigh, who looked the more likely winners as the game progressed – only to be denied by the late heroics of Jameson and the far upright which prevented a last-gasp McCallum winner.
STAR MAN: Pete Jameson (Hartlepool) ATT: 2,548 ENTERTAINMENT: ★★★★★ REFEREE: Aaron Jackson