Ten men Pools held by resilient County
20 April 2007
Hartlepool 1 Notts County 1
Pool's title hopes took a blow as they were held to a draw by a Notts County side battling to get into the play-offs. Both teams had a player sent off in a tense second half in which County refused to allow the home team to hit their stride after they got off to a great start.
Hartlepool were in front in the third minute when James Brown lashed in a low angled shot from wide on the right of the area. However, he then went on to miss two more which would have put the match out of County's reach. One shot whistled narrowly wide and the other deflected wide as County battled hard to stay in the game.
Battling County grabbed a shock equaliser in first-half injury time when Jason Lee squared from the left and Andy Parkinson scored as two defenders slipped on the edge of the area before slotting a low shot into the bottom corner.
There were few chances in the second half but there were plenty of incidents.
Home defender Ben Clark was sent off on 61 minutes after he hauled down Lawrie Dudfield just inside the area and conceded a penalty. But after the red card was shown, keeper Dimitrios Konstantopoulos came to Hartlepool's rescue as he dived to punch out Austin McCann's spot-kick. That gave County the edge against ten men until the last four minutes when they had defender Steve Hunt sent off for two yellow cards in the space of two minutes.
Not a nice end to the game but Pools looking good for league champions!
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