County face another heavyweight clash in the National League promotion race this weekend, as we take on 2nd place Hartlepool looking to continue our fine recent form at Edgeley Park to close in on the top three.
With the top three all winning their games on Tuesday night, our convincing 3-0 victory against Eastleigh at Edgeley Park was a vital one that kept us in touch at the top. Although we remain fourth in the National League, we moved three points clear of fifth place Wrexham and seven ahead of Halifax, who sit just outside the play-off places, with that win.
For Hartlepool, their 1-0 win at Dagenham in midweek extended their unbeaten run to ten games as they look to keep pace with top of the table Sutton. Going into this game, they sit six points clear of County having played two games more, and are four points shy of 1st place, having played three more than the league leaders.
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Since we last met:
It was a miserable night on Teesside for County the last time we faced Hartlepool, as we fell to a crushing 4-0 defeat at Victoria Park in a game that saw us reduced to nine men with straight red cards for Ash Palmer and John Rooney.
That resounding victory for Dave Challinor’s side came after a run of just two wins from their previous ten league games, halting their slide down the league and lifting them above us in the league table, jumping up to fifth whilst we laboured down in 13th, albeit with just a two point deficit and three games in hand at the time.
From that day on Hartlepool have hardly looked back, losing just twice in their subsequent 17 league games to fire themselves back into promotion contention, with Weymouth and Eastleigh the only sides to defeat them in that time.
The foundation of their promotion push has been built on an extraordinary recent run of form at home, with nine wins and a draw from their last ten games at Victoria Park giving them the best home record in the division.
Although they’ve found it harder to win on the road lately – they’ve won just two of their last eight away league games – they’ve proven to be stubborn opposition to break down, with just two defeats in that time too. The ten game unbeaten run that they’re currently on has seen them draw five and win five, with each of those wins being by a solitary one goal margin.
The goals of Luke Armstrong have proven instrumental to this strong run of form with the striker, son of County legend Alun, hitting the back of the net 11 times in 19 games since his loan move from Salford in December.
Former County man Rhys Oates also provides a significant threat. The forward, who had a loan spell at Edgeley Park from Barnsley back in 2014, has eight league goals this campaign, and both he and Armstrong were on the scoresheet in that 4-0 victory earlier in the season.
Match Stats:
- This will be the 137th competitive meeting between the two sides. Historically, we have the edge in this fixture, with 56 victories to Hartlepool’s 49.
- Hartlepool haven’t won a game at Edgeley Park since September 2003 (a run of four games) when goals from Eifion Williams and Marco Gabbiadini, either side of an Aaron Wilbraham equaliser, earned Pools a 2-1 victory.
- County are looking to win four successive home league games for the first time since August 2019.
- Alex Reid now has 11 league goals this season, matching his total of league goals over the last two seasons combined for Stevenage, Fylde, Ebbsfleet and Dagenham.
The Match Sponsor for this game will be Together. We’d like to thank them again for their fantastic support.
In association with LV Bet.
