Reaction to Hartlepool United's 3-1 win over York City

Hartlepool Mail

Hartlepool Mail's Joe Ramage shares his reaction to Hartlepool United's 3-1 win over York City at the LNER Community Stadium.

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00:00 I'm here outside the LNER Community Stadium in York and well, where has that performance

00:04 been from Hartlepool United as they ran out 3-1 winners against York City and it was a

00:09 deserved 3-1 at that as well. It could have been more, it should have been more. A little

00:12 bit of frustration that they gave the goal away at the end but you can forget about that

00:15 this weekend because it was a much needed result for Hartlepool, a much needed result

00:19 for John Askey, a much needed result for the players and of course over 1,500 Travellerland

00:23 fans who made the trip down to York this afternoon and it was from the off, Hartlepool were better

00:29 than York today, straight away from the get-go. They were on the front foot and they looked

00:34 slick and it's arguably the best performance that we've seen under John Askey this season.

00:38 You could even say it's the best performance we've seen under John Askey since he came

00:41 into the club back in February, maybe look at that Grimsby game over at Easter but this

00:45 was right up there and like I say, out of tune with what we've seen from Hartlepool

00:50 this season as their struggles have been well documented but this one, this is back to their

00:55 very best. John Askey at the end he said was on par with some of the performance at the

00:58 start of the season but for me I thought this was terrific from the start. Callum Cook,

01:02 one of the best performances I've seen from him since he joined Hartlepool last summer

01:06 but you could go right the way through the squad, two men who were excellent today. Nicky

01:10 Featherstone giving the captain's armband again this afternoon in David Ferguson's absence,

01:14 his 550th career appearance and he marked that with a goal, just a typical captain's

01:18 display and top class from the midfielder. But given everything this club and these supporters

01:23 have been through in recent weeks and you could even go back to the start of last season

01:26 and the way that panned out in relegation, they deserve a day like this and it's been

01:31 long overdue so they need to enjoy it but at the same time they can't rest on their

01:35 laurels, they're not going to get carried away, they've got another big game against

01:37 Kidderminster in the week, it's really important to back this up, both the performance and

01:42 the result against another side who are struggling towards the bottom of the table on Tuesday.

01:46 As for today though, the changes that were made, it was another four changes from John

01:50 Askey, some of them in force, as I said David Ferguson was suspended, Terry Lajimane went

01:54 back to Middlesbrough, Mitch Hancocks, he was ineligible to play against his parent

01:57 club and Chris Ware who dropped back onto the bench. So there was a few in force changes,

02:01 Luke Hendry and Charles Heamans still out, Askey had to bring in Brodie Patterson and

02:05 Jake Hasty, two players who have split opinions more than once over the course of their time

02:10 at Hartlepool but full credit to both of them, they both put shifts in today and it was Jake

02:13 Hasty who opened the score and continued his redemption arc with Hartlepool inside six

02:18 minutes, lovely ball from Callum Cook just round the corner after Nicky Fetherston and

02:22 Kieran Wallace did well to retain possession in midfield. Hasty had the beating of his

02:25 man on the right, he cut in into the area and he finished like somebody who has been

02:28 playing week in, week out and has a number of goals for his name already this season.

02:31 He stroked it into the bottom corner and it was the perfect start for Askey and Hartlepool

02:36 and it got better only ten minutes later, Callum Cook at the heart of it again. It actually

02:40 came from York's first real foray into Hartlepool's half, it got spread over to the left and I

02:43 think it was McLaughlin who arrived at the edge of the area and he fired well over the

02:47 bar. Hartlepool went straight up the end and it was Callum Cook who just got on the angle

02:50 of the area and he stood one up to Crawford who took an excellent touch to set and then

02:54 smashed it into the bottom corner, 2-0. You're thinking right, go on then, go and win the

02:58 game from there but this is Hartlepool, from what we've seen this season you couldn't necessarily

03:03 rely on them to do that but full credit to them, they kept on the accelerator throughout

03:07 the first half and they were terrific. The only grievance that John Askey would have

03:11 at half time is that it was only 2-0 because they could have been further in front from

03:14 Crawford with a header from Nicky Fetherston's corner which came off the post, Callum Cook

03:18 went close again and it was just real, real good performance throughout. Second half,

03:23 you know, it was a performance as well I should say, they forced York into all three changes

03:27 at the break, that's how much their game plan went out the window. As it is the second half

03:31 you would expect York to come out and they did for the first five or six minutes, Hartlepool

03:35 under a little bit of pressure but then Poole's got the goal that really killed the game,

03:39 counter attack, Callum Cook again, three assists for him today, honestly what a performance.

03:43 His manager called him like Zinedine Zidane last weekend, well, you know, he lived up

03:46 to those expectations a little bit this afternoon. He drove forward on the attack, rolled the

03:51 ball into Nicky Fetherston of all people who broke the lines and he slid it under the goalkeeper

03:54 in front of what was a delirious away end for 3-0 and that pretty much wrapped the game

03:59 up. Hartlepool could see the game out and play it at their tempo from that point and

04:03 they did. York, a couple of chances later on and like I say the only grievance was that

04:07 they did get that goal through Tyler Corden later on, another set piece, that will be

04:11 something that will anger John Askey and it did, you mentioned it after the full-time

04:16 whistle but you can gloss over that one a little bit today because beyond that the performance

04:20 was really, really good and back to kind of what we expect or really want to see from

04:25 Hartlepool this season. As I say, hugely important that they can kick on going into Kidderminster

04:30 on Tuesday night. Finish here in York, York 1, Hartlepool 3.

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