Hartlepool 0 Leeds Utd 1

Apr 26 2009 by Emily Potts, Sunday Sun

HARTLEPOOL’S League One fate will go to the last game of the season next Saturday, but it will take two major upsets to see them go down.

They go to Bristol Rovers, while Carlisle – the only bottom four team who can now catch them – are at home to Millwall.

It will need a Pools defeat, a Carlisle win and a six-goal difference to see Chris Turner’s men go down.

Turner will demand his players take nothing for granted but, on their form against play-off-bound Leeds at the Victoria Park, they should be able to avoid the drop.

Turner said: “We will go to Bristol Rovers trying to win the game, and trying to make sure we do not give away daft goals.

“I was very proud of the way the players performed against Leeds, but one touch of class for their goal was the difference between the two teams.

“He created a chance for himself, but we found it hard to create clear-cut chances, for all we worked hard from start to finish.”

Leeds probably deserved their win, but Pools made them work hard for it all the way and in the first half particularly, had enough of the game to claim they might have got a point out of it.

Leeds, though, did hit the woodwork twice and had another cleared off the line, so their claims to the three points are strong.

For top scorer Joel Porter it was a quiet Pools farewell in his last home game before heading home for Australia. He is going to be almost impossible to replace.

There was a lively start to the game as both teams looked for an early breakthrough, Leeds hitting the woodwork twice and having another effort cleared off the home line.

Ankergren did well on 13 minutes when he dashed off his line to smother the ball after Daniel Nardiello had weaved his way through three Leeds tackles as he broke into the area from the left.

There were more scares to come at the other end as Bradley Johnson smashed a 20-yard free-kick against the underside of the Pools bar on 19 minutes.

From a corner nine minutes later, Leeds defender Sam Sodje’s header looped against the angle of post and bar before bouncing behind.

It was the travelling fans who were singing on the hour as Leeds took the lead with a simple goal.

Ben Parker’s short pass into the area on the left found Beckford, and he turned sharply before drilling his low shot past Jan Budtz’s left hand into the far corner.

Pools battled hard to get back into the game, but they never quite had enough to worry Leeds.