Gary L - penalty victim

By Charlie Summerbell
September 19 2009

Hartlepool suffered their first away defeat of the season as two penalties gave Colchester a controversial 2-0 win against Chris Turner’s men. In fact, Colchester had three spot kicks, but Kevin Lisbie blasted his first off target before scoring from the other two to send Pools home pointless.

With big men Clive Platt and on loan Kayode Odejayi up front, there was nothing particularly pretty about Colchester’s style, but it was effective as they kept the Pools defence busy for most of the game.
But it was those penalties, awarded by ref Keith Woolmer that were the real difference between the two teams.
Six minutes before half-time Sam Collins was unlucky to concede the first for an alleged foul as he and Odejayi went for a high ball, but Lisbie missed the target.
However, a minute before half-time his did hit the net from the spot after Gary Liddle was judged to have fouled Odejayi, and seconds after the break he was on target again after Liddle was wrongly penalised for allegedly handling a cross.
It was a cruel defeat for Pools, because an untidy, scrappy game didn’t really deserve a winner at all.
Their unbeaten away run had to end some time, but losing out to controversial penalties was a bit harsh. The truth is that Colchester were a more physical team than Pools and got away with that approach thanks to a refereeing display which fell short of the desired standard and penalty decisions which were questionable, to say the least.
It wasn’t so much that Pools played badly, but they couldn’t match Colchester’s physical approach to the game at times, and weren’t helped by the ref.
So now a start to the season which was looking acceptable thanks to Pools’ away form is beginning to look a bit raggy and it really is vital that they beat Walsall at the Vic next weekend.