Analysis: Three points turn into one as Walsall let a lead slip
Two goals in injury time when they were seemingly cruising to a deserved victory proved a bitter pill to swallow for Walsall.
It also seriously dented any hopes of making the end-of-season play-offs. Few would bet on Walsall reaching them now, although in football – as we saw on Saturday – anything can happen.
If Walsall had won at relegation-threatened Pool when they were 3-1 up with 91 minutes gone it may have ignited their hopes of extending the season.
But any joy at scoring three good goals when they have been hard to come by recently was negated at seeing the points they should have brought home dissolved into one.
With a two-goal cushion and a fairly comfortable final 10 minutes of normal time, Walsall looked like they could manage the game and take the win, which would have put them within six points of Mansfield and Salford in sixth and seventh.
But Dan Kemp’s second penalty on 91 minutes after Liam Kinsella had brought down Ollie Finney was followed by a Connor Jennings header deep in injury time from a Kemp cross to make it 3-3.
Boss Michael Flynn was a frustrated and angry man at the end of the game and the 340 fans who made the 600 mile round trip would have felt the same.
They will have felt like they are going through their own personal groundhog day with Walsall posting six draws in a row – a club record – in February.
It made matters worse that Hartlepool were third from bottom at the start of play having conceded the most goals of any team in the division – 59 from 33 games, including seven in the two games against Walsall.
The Saddlers certainly deserved to win the game, with three good goals and Brandon Comley hitting the bar. But Hartlepool never gave up under new manager John Askey and the relief and disbelief among them at a precious point could be felt at the end.
Walsall took the game to their opponents – indeed Tom Knowles could have scored within the first 20 seconds after a mistake from the kick-off let him in, but goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk saved his two shots well, one with his feet and the rebound with his hands as he parried it away.
Walsall looked confident, Isaac Hutchinson and Tom Knowles being given the run of the field and Matty Stevens back to full fitness and looking dangerous. But it was Brandon Comley who went the closest to opening the scoring for Walsall in the first 15 minutes, his long-range effort hitting the woodwork before he set up the deserved opener on 33.
Comley drove towards the Hartlepool defence, releasing the ball for Knowles to turn and neatly put the ball in the corner of the net
Isaac Hutchinson gave Walsall some breathing space just after the break when he received the ball from Stevens 30 yards out, went inside two defenders and unleashed an unstoppable shot to make it 2-0.
Immediately after, Owen Evans had to be on his guard to save a curling Mohamad Sylla shot.
Hartlepool got back in the game on 54 minutes when Hayden White was adjudged to have impeded a home player in the area and Dan Kemp made no mistake from the spot. The penalty looked harsh, but Flynn had no complaints after the game, questioning why his player would have pulled a shirt in the area
Walsall didn’t let that set them back and were clearly the superior team as Hartlepool searched for an equaliser but couldn’t make progress.
On 71 minutes Stevens got a through-ball from Hutchinson to return the complement from the first goal and slipped inside substitute Mo Niang, applying a great finish to make it 3-1 and it appeared to be game over.
It was the first goal for Stevens since he joined Walsall on loan from Forest Green and showed what he is capable of now fully fit.
Walsall were seemingly seeing the game out after this, until a crazy spell of injury time in which sloppy defending saw three points turn into one.
Kinsella was the wrong side of fellow substitute Finney on a throw on 91 minutes and brought him down in the box for a second penalty which Kemp put away and Hartlepool – desperate for a point – sensed a real opportunity.
In the 93rd minute, a long free-kick by David Ferguson into the box was not dealt with by the Saddlers’ defence and Jennings nodded home for a point Hartlepool could barely have hoped for going into injury time.
There was equal amounts of elation and despair on the two contrasting sides at the final whistle, with Walsall now contemplating a week in training of perhaps not how to score goals but how to defend a lead.
