Paul Huntington, who missed Saturday's defeat against Yeovil Town, returned to the County starting eleven in place of skipper Johnny Mullins who didn't travel to the North East through illness.

Gary Ablett also recalled Paul Turnbull in place of James Vincent who dropped down to the bench.

Jemal Johnson joined Vincent on the bench following his omission on Saturday for disciplinary reasons.

County: Fon Williams; Halls, Huntington, Swailes, Sadler; Partridge, Turnbull, Perkins, Poole; Ibehre, Donnelly.

Subs: Vincent, Johnson, Gerrard, Rowe, S Barnes, Murty.

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The game started slowly, and it was only after ten minutes that either side really troubled the other. Ibehre cut in from the left, fired a right-footed shot that the keeper got a finger to and turned wide.

From the resulting corner, Paul Huntington took the ball down with his right, knocked it to his left but he was leaning back too much; his shot went over the bar.

A couple of minutes later, Fon Williams threw himself full-length to his right to turn a shot from Rory O'Donovan wide.

On 13 minutes, Pools took a long throw-in which was poorly defended by County. Joe Gamble shot from the edge of the box past an unsighted Owain Fon Williams to open the scoring.

Former Hatter Leon McSweeney took on and beat Mat Sadler, and his shot from 25 yards bounced just in front of Fon Williams, who did well to turn it round the post.

Gamble went looking for his second on 35 minutes, but Owain Fon Williams tipped his strike over the bar. The resulting corner, from Richie Humphries, was cleared by David Perkins.

Donnelly got himself a silly booking three minutes after the break after needlessly kicking the ball away.

Andy Monkhouse hit the post on 52 minutes with a left-footed snapshot from nothing.

Pools doubled their lead ten minutes after the break. McSweeney played in a brilliant ball, giving Andy Monkhouse an easy finish at the far post.

Andy Halls and James Brown both found themselves booked after squaring up to each other.
Brown had initially stopped Halls taking a quick free kick, and the County youngster took exception.

Sadler played the ball to the centre from the wing for George Donnelly, but the striker's shot was turned over by Scott Flinders. Not long after, David Perkins shot from outside the area but it went right.

County continued to push and Richie Partridge found himself deep in the area, but his shot went wide right.

Right on the announcement of 5 minutes extra time, County switched off and let Rory O'Donovan run through on goal. The Irishman stroked the ball past Fon Williams to make it 3-0.

Overall, County had plenty of golden chances throughout the game, but the old inability to finish combined with silly mistakes at the back cost the Hatters dearly again.