Millwall 1 Hartlepool 0

Feb 28 2010 Sunday Sun

The decisive goal arrived early on, Sam Collins fouled Neil Harris and the striker opted to take the resulting free-kick.

He curled in into the defensive wall, but the shot managed to find a way through and deflect its way into the side of the goal unguarded by Scott Flinders.

Just four minutes later and Pools should have been all-square.

Colin Larkin turned neatly in the home penalty area to create space to feed Antony Sweeney. His shot was on target, but placed right down the throat of goalkeeper David Forde, who was able to smother too easily when he should have been picking the ball out of the net.

Flinders made a fine save to claw out a goalbound Steve Morison header, before the game sparked into life in the second-half. Denis Behan, on at half-time, drove the ball low across goal and it evaded Sweeney. Jones kept it in, but saw his cut back to Roy O’Donovan blocked.

Neil Austin’s cross to the far post was too high for Ritchie Humphreys but, at the other end, Flinders had to cover his goal to keep out Chris Hackett’s free-kick.

Harris should have got a second, but shot over from six yards – and from then on, it was Pools making the running. Sweeney’s cross was put wide by Behan and a Ritchie Jones far post header was looping in, before Forde tipped it over.

And in injury time, with the home side hanging on, Joe Gamble shot over from 18 yards.