My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun
Hartlepool also ended a three game losing streak and so everyone was happy … apart from anyone who expected to see scintillating football and lots of goals.
But this game was never going to be about entertainment. Penney was honest enough to admit that he expected that to come later and his priority after inheriting a team that hasn’t won in twelve league games was to get the players believing in themselves again. One way of doing this is to stop them conceding and give them a platform to move on.
Penney played Brentford loanee David McCracken last and the 29 year old certainly made a good impression alongside fellow central defenders Byron Anthony and James Tunnicliffe and picked up the man of the match award.
I also asked Penney what his plans were for bringing in a big lad up front and he agreed that one was needed. Jo Kuffour and Will Hoskins worked tirelessly, but neither have the presence of a target man and if the rumour I saw yesterday on the Internet of Calvin Zola joining the club had proved correct, he would have been an ideal addition. At 6’6” and built like the proverbial brick out house, he could have held the ball up for one or both of the two current strikers and cause chaos in opposition defences. Unfortunately at the time of writing this his move to Burton from Crewe has just been confirmed. However this is just the type of player needed.
Kuffour was unlucky not to grab a winner in the 43rd minute when his shot from 10 yards deflected off a defender, but was cleared off the line by Paul Hartley.
About twenty minutes earlier he found himself in the wrong place on the goal line when Chris Lines effort hit him on the knee and bounced away much to the relief of the visitors.
When I’m writing a report on an evening game I always write a little something on the first half action to pad things out just in case it’s needed. Unfortunately for Jo they were the clearest cut chances in the game as a whole and so the paper ran with it in the lead paragraph.
After the game Penney said:
“It was vital we kept a clean sheet, and that will give us confidence. It's something to build on. It's no good playing pretty football and getting beaten every week. We were too open in the games I'd seen so far (against Plymouth and Walsall) and let nine goals in our previous three. It ain’t going to be pretty because we are going to have to battle and grind things out. We need to do the other side of the game as well and we did that tonight.
We know we can play better, but it was important we got something from the game.”
Pools manager Mick Wadsworth was pleased with the point and said:
“Even though we’ve drawn I’m as happy with that as I have been with some of our away wins this season.
I thought we dominated that game by and large for 80 to 90 per cent of the game. I never felt in any danger, especially in the second half, I thought we coped really well.”
Song artist: Rogues
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