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Hartlepool United 1 - 2 Southend United

Flahaven keeps warm to freeze Pool out

AS temperatures plummeted and games were called off across the country, one man in Hartlepool had the warmest hands in the land last night.

Southend goalkeeper Darryl Flahaven's one-man show stopped Hartlepool United in their stride and put his side on the way to a victory.

The No 1 might not have been the biggest player on the snow-covered pitch, but he was the busiest as time and time again he denied Pool.

And, to cap his night off, in injury time he stopped Chris Llewellyn's penalty and the subsequent follow up from substitute Steven Istead.

His real purple patch came as half-time approached and he made three outstanding stops to keep the score level.

Flahaven's performance took the sting out of Pool's game and the game drifted away from them as they managed to lose their fifth home League One game this season.

They have won only five in front of their own fans since February this year.

Pool boss Martin Scott has regularly bemoaned that his side has had little reward from games they have controlled for long periods and this was another to add to the list.

After the draw at Barnsley on Boxing Day, Pool wanted a victory to take them forward. Instead, all they took home was another crescendo of boos at the whistle.

Referee Andy Hall correctly tried to play an early advantage when Chris Llewellyn was tripped as he ran across the defence. As possession was lost, Pool were awarded a free-kick.

Ben Clark stepped up and fizzed a 25-yard shot just across the angle of post and bar with Flahaven beaten.

Soon after, the official tried to allow play to continue again, but again Pool came away with a free-kick.

This time a long Ritchie Humphreys dead ball found Micky Nelson and he was just beaten to the ball eight yards from goal.

A moment of hesitation from the Pool defence almost allowed Wayne Gray to sneak in between Darren Craddock and Dimi Konstantopoulos, but the right-back was sharp enough to clear his lines.

Then Neill Collins misread a low clearance on halfway and that allowed Freddie Eastwood to get goal side and away from the on-loan Sunderland defender. Eastwood, however, tried to be too clever and his attempt to lob the keeper from 40 yards was embarrassing.

Nelson's thumping tackle inside the area halted Eastwood and, as the pair challenged for the loose ball, a free-kick went in the away side's favour.

Eastwood stepped up and curled his effort just wide of the far post as Konstantopoulos dived low.

Then Humphreys burst forward from left back and confidently struck a low drive which was curling inside the far post, before Flahaven got a strong hand to the shot and pushed it away.

The keeper was beaten on 20 minutes, however.

Darrell Clarke exchanged passes with Eifion Williams and played the striker in on goal. Flahaven got a hand on his shot to knock the ball into the air, but the striker was alert enough to carry on his run forward and nodded the bouncing ball into the net.

It was his second in as many games after starting and scoring in the draw at Barnsley.

But after ten minutes in which Southend looked about as interested in this game as people in the North-East are at watching news stories of snow in London, they struck an equaliser.

Duncan Jupps' ball down the line had enough weight on it to keep Collins away from the temptation to find the Mill House Stand and Wayne Gray collected. He fed Mark Gower and a low cut back found Eastwood who netted from ten yards.

It was the first shot they had mustered on goal.

Humphreys' corner, fired in from the left, somehow evaded the blue shirts in the area, none more agonisingly so than Williams, sliding in at the back stick.

Confidence high after his goal, Williams curled a beauty from 25 yards that had top corner written all over it before Flahaven pulled off his first wonder save.

Then, after Thomas Butler dinked inside and created space to shoot from distance, the keeper again performed heroics.

From the corner, Butler stabbed the ball over Flahaven, but the wrong side of the post.

Pool's dominance was obvious, but they had nothing to show for it.

That the scores were level was down to one man and the visiting keeper still had time to pull off the save of the game as the break loomed.

Nelson's towering textbook header was bouncing down into the net until Flahaven's arm somehow scooped the ball away.

It took him eight minutes before his first stop of the second half. Collins shot low and Flahaven pushed it away from the bottom corner. From the flag kick, Collins tried to bundle the ball over the line, but Flahaven denied him and Williams mis-hit his follow-up and Jupp cleared off the line.

The pressure was as relentless as the snow and Butler's shot from distance brought Pool's 11th corner, which led to a 12th , 13th and 14th for the overworked Humphreys.

Pool wasted a great chance to go in front when Butler broke away from deep. As he charged ahead, Pool had five attackers against three defenders, but Llewellyn's heavy touch let him down and the chance went away with the Christmas wrapping paper.

Clarke was making his first start since March 2004 after a seemingly endless stretch of knee trouble and he found out how strong the joint was after taking a tackle from Che Wilson full on the knee.

After treatment he recovered and was soon pushing Pool forward, playing in Llewellyn, who fed Williams, but the move was cut out.

Pool needed another spark after the game had gone a little tame. A quick free-kick almost provided it, but Llewellyn's shot angled wide.

With ten minutes to go, Konstantopoulos finally had to stop a shot on target and his fist kept out Mark Gower's free-kick from 20 yards.

Then Craddock needlessly pushed Gray in the area as a high ball came in from the right and Gray slotted in the penalty.

When Clarke was bundled over in the area in injury time, Pool had the chance of a draw.

That was, however, before the intervention of Flahaven. .