West Allotment Ladies travelled to promotion hopefuls Hartlepool United on Sunday to prove yet again that when Allotment have a full team available they can compete in this league. With our keeper still injured Hindmarsh and Jordan had to share goalkeeping duties but proved they are very capable between the sticks. Early on in the game Hartlepool were the better team and had their finishing been better they could have been two or three up . After the first 20 minutes Allotment started to come into the game with Dodds and McConnel going close. However Hartlepool broke the deadlock on 37th minute with a good strike from outside the box into the top corner. As half time was approaching Curtis broke out of defence with a great run and shot to level the score.
A change of formation saw Allotment start the second half much better although it was the home side who took the lead when a very harsh penalty was awarded for handball. The Allotment defender was so close to the attacker when the ball was struck but a penalty was awarded and well taken to restore the lead.
After that Allotment were the better team with McConnel particularly causing problems down the left wing. There were several chances to equalise and a perfectly good goal ruled out for outside. However Allotment kept going and were rewarded Hindmarsh switched the play for McConnel to outpace the Pools defender and nutmeg the keeper. In the last ten minutes Allotment had more chances to take all three points but just couldn't find the finish
The clip show our equaliser from McConnel .