Austin - pen

By Charlie Summerbell
October 14 2012

Neale Cooper has said it before, and there's little need for anybody to repeat the old football saying that when a team is down, everything tends to run against them ... it's certainly happening to Hartlepool United at the moment.

After hitting the woodwork with three penalties in their midweek shoot-out with Bradford City, it was another Yorkshire team inflicted the latest hard-luck story on Cooper and his team.

Pools were deservedly 1-0 up with two minutes left against Doncaster Rovers at the Vic when the visitors nicked a sloppy late goal to deny the home team only their second win of the season.

Neil Austin had scored from the spot after Steve Howard was fouled, but Rob Jones scored from close-in to apply the latest sickener.

Pools had had enough chances to win the game easily, but a lack of confidence in front of goal and more bad luck limited the goals.

Not surprisingly, Cooper preferred to look on the bright side and told the club website: “There were a lot of positives, especially in the second half.

“They were always likely to be a threat with their strikeforce, but defensively we did really well and covered for each other.

“We had chances to score more than we did, and again the support was fantastic again. They have every right to criticise, but think they saw that the lads were trying their hardest.

“We are playing some good stuff at times – we just need to cut out the silly individual mistakes and enjoy a bit of better fortune.”

Pools go to Leyton Orient on Tuesday night for their rearranged game hoping that their luck is on the turn … they certainly need it to be.