Cheltenham parted company with manager Keith Downing within hours of the game, and that won't gave Pools boss danny Wilson any cause for satisaction. However, the result and his team's performance will.
In fact, Pools played as well as the weather would allow them to, non-stop pouring rain putting a damper on the night, and on chairman Ken Hodcroft's hopes of a bumper Friday night crowd. In fact, the gate of 3,637 was a good one considering the awful conditions.
Our verdict on the Pools players: 

Arran Lee-Barrett (right) - making great progress, he made two brilliant early saves to keep Cheltenham out.
Jamie McCunnie - looks twice the player he did last season.
Michael Nelson - thanks goodness he was fit, he had a blinder.
Sam Collins - cushty, yet again.
Richie Humphreys - Mr Consistency.
Antony Sweeney - had a top game wide on the right.
Richie Jones - like ALB, he's coming along great.
Gary Liddle - like McCunnie, he's looking better than he did last season.
Andy Monkhouse - took his goal well and had one of his better games.
Joel Porter - ran his legs off from start to finish, the defence must have been sick of him.
James Brown - back on the goals trail, and like Poter he terrorised the defence.

To top it all off, sub Michael Mackay (left) scored the fourth goal seconds after going on, the only black mark being the fact that Pools conceded a late goal and lost out on a long overdue clean sheet.
But it was the sort of performance that gives everybody heart, and they'll need it when they look at the nexdt three fixtures: Oldham (h), Leeds (a) and Leicester (a).

Meanwhile, the tiff between Pools and the Hartlepool Mail and Northern Echo appears to be continuing, with the Mail not even mentioning Friday's game in that night's paper.
Yah boo, my dad's bigger than your dad.

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