Wyke - goal

By Charlie Summerbell
January 13 2013

Hartlepool United provided another rare spoark of light as they picked up a point in a 1-1 draw at Shrewsbury - not enought to create hopes of League One survival, but a positive change.

It was a gritty performance of the sort that, if there had been more of them from the start of the season, could have made their current position a lot better.

Box of kipperd askedlast week if Pools could at least rescue some respectability from this season - the answer is "yes" if they can reproduce this form more often.

Pools had their chances before falling behind, Steve Howard heading straight at home keeper Chris Weale and  Jonathan Franks forcing hom to tip over his own bar.

When Shrewsbury took the lead on 23 minutes, Jon Taylor scoring, Pools fan could be forgiven for expecting yet another collapse.

But there appears to be more character in the team now than there used to be, and they dug in to claim a their point with a goal ten minutes into the second half, on-loan Boro striker Charlie Wyke’s shot deflected into the net.

The home team dominated much of the rest of the game but Pools defended well and the only real candidate for player of the season, Scott Flinders, made a couple of class saves to keep the score at 1-1.

Hughes was happy with the point and told the club website: “We passed it well and created some chances, and their goalkeeper has to make one or two saves, so we were disappointed to go a goal down.

“Getting the equalizer gave us a lift, but we seemed to get afraid by the prospect of winning and trepidation crept into out game. We sat too deep and stopped expressing ourselves.”

Hughes had a special word of thanks for the band of travelling Pools fans and he added: “It shows the loyalty we have and I’m desperate to bring success for them.”

There are signs that he is good enough to realise his aim, given time. Hopefully, when he was appointed the Pools powers that be will have realised that miracles take time.