Hartlepool 3 Albion 1 - verdict
A match lost. A team embarassed. An opportunity squandered. It wasn't exactly the homecoming Tony Mowbray was looking for.
A match lost. A team embarassed. An opportunity squandered. It wasn't exactly the homecoming Tony Mowbray was looking for.
Had Albion's manager been asked yesterday tea time to describe a nightmare scenario for the evening ahead, he would have come up with something pretty close to what actually unfolded.
The dream night was a comfortable but competitive win, in which the fringe players in his squad pushed their cases for selection at Bolton on Saturday.
Instead his team left his native Teeside after a pointless period of extra-time with noses bloodied, muscles jaded and self-belief inevitably eroded from pre-match levels.
If reaching the third round of the Carling Cup was neither here nor there in the bigger picture of Albion's season, the value of a victory for morale and momentum last night should be underestimated.
It was a shot in the arm that Mowbray's players failed to collect, as their League One hosts outworked them to claim a deserved victory.
Mowbray was in no mood to plead mitigation on his players' behalf in the wake of their Carling Cup exit. But, in the interests if balance, they rattled the crossbar three times in an extra-time period that could have swung either way.
The sneak victory they could so easily have claimed would not have disguised a performance that ticked almost none of the required boxes.
If he was looking for silver linings to decorate the cloud, then Mowbray may have found it in the debut performance of Borja Valero, who recovered from an early buffeting to show evidence of the quick feet and speed of thought that convinced his new manager to fork out the best part of £5m.
Yet the Spaniard could do little to prevent a defeat, that seemed on the cards from the moment Leon Barnett's howler allowed the home side a second half lead.
Albion rallied at the end, to force an extra-time period that Mowbray will now wish had never happened. Pool wrapped up victory with two goals in four minutes in the opening extra-time period, to seal their Premier League visitors' fate.
Hartlepool were the first to threaten, when Barnett made a good block on the edge of the six-yard box, after good work down the right by Peter Sweeney.
Albion began to exhert some authority and Moore turned Nelson superbly on the edge of the area, spinning into the box before crashing down under Nelson's tackle, with his penalty appeals being waved away.
Anthony Sweeney threaded a fine ball through to Porter, who sprinted between Cech and Meite and into the clear, before hitting a lob that beat Kiely but dropped over the bar.
A cross from the right sparked a goalmouth scramble, in which Sweeney blasted a shot at Koren and Nelson fired over.
At the other end there were chances too. Brunt's corner was cleared as far as Koren, whose 20-yard shot was cleared off the line by Sweeney.
Moore and Cech exchanged passes on the left, before Cech picked out Valero's run but the Spaniard fired wide just before half-time.
Sherjill MacDonald's arrived from the bench to give Albion some added impetus. He surged onto Jonathan Greening's ball and hit a shot that was spilled by the keeper, with Koren forcing the rebound wide.
Koren saw a shot deflected over but, just after the hour mark, Barnett's hitherto solid evening turned on its head. He was caught in possession trying to jink past Gary Liddle, who squared for Porter and he beat Meite to turn it in.
Albion increased the tempo in search of an equaliser, with MacDonald's jinking runs ending with two shots at Lee-Barrett and one cross that was not turned in.
There were just three minutes left when they drew level. Cech, Valero and MacDonald did well to keep possession on the edge of the area and feed Koren, who curled a wonderful shot into the top corner from 25 yards.
Twice the woodwork came to Hartlepool's rescue at 1-1, as Greening's corner was headed against the bar by Meite and substitute Craig Beattie hit the top of the bar with a free-kick from 25 yards.
Albion were behind again on 102 minutes, as they were caught napping with a quick free-kick. Sweeney squared for substitute David Foley to score at the second attempt.
There was more misfortune, as Greening's shot hit the crossbar before hitting the keeper's back and somehow bouncing out to safety.
Just before half time in extra time, Matty Robson crossed from the left for Richie Barker, whose far post header beat Dean Kiely and rendered the remaining 15 minutes irrelevant.
Hartlepool (4-4-2): Lee-Barrett; McCunnie, Nelson, Collins, Humphreys; Sweeney, Jones, Liddle, Monkhouse (Robson, 57); Brown (Foley, 85), Porter (Barker, 85).
Subs not used: Budtz, Power, Mackay, Rowell.
Albion (4-4-2): Kiely; Hoefkens, Barnett, Meite, Cech; Koren (Pele, 95), Valero, Greening, Brunt (MacDonald, HT); Bednar (Beattie, 65), Moore.
Subs not used: Dorrans, Carson, Slusarski, Martis.
Referee: M Haywood (West Yorkshire).
Attendance: 3,387 (379 Albion).
