Home >Story Index> Hartlepool 4 Swansea 0

With better finishing, the home side might even have surpassed that scoreline in a game that was just as one-sided.

Richie Humphreys scored an impressive hat-trick, and Hartlepool missed at last half-a-dozen golden chances.

Humphreys gave Pool a tenth minute lead when he ran from halfway and finished with a great 20-yard shot that went in off the base of a post.

Swansea didn't have an answer to the home team's slick one-touch football and strikers Adam Boyd and Eifion Williams could each have had two goals with better finishing.

Swansea lost striker Marc Richards on 36 minutes, sent off for a violent challenge on home skipper Mickey Barron.

Three minutes later Humphreys made them pay with a second, a close-range finish after a three-man move split the City defence apart.

It was hard work from then on for City, and Humphreys chalked up his hat-trick on 68 minutes with an impressive header at the far post after a looping cross from Barron.

City keeper Roger Freestone had been struggling with a leg injury, and he went off a minute later. With no keeper on the bench, Alan Tate had to go in goal, and he'd only been there two minutes when he was picking the ball out of the net.

This time the scorer was another midfield player, Tommy Widdrington, a simple close-range finish after a three-man move split the City defence.

It was target practice for Hartlepool for the rest of the game, but they couldn't find another way through, and Swansea were let off lightly.

"We were well beaten by the better side," admitted City boss Brian Flynn.

"They showed why they are clear at the top of the table, and we can have no complaints. The sending-off didn't help and Marc Richards will be disciplined." Hartlepool manager Mike Newell said: "My only complaint is that we didn't score more. We had the chances, but we won, and that's what matters.

"We lost our way for a spell in the second half, but generally we played well, another good, professional performance."

After a seven-goal defeat at Victoria Park last season, the Swans were again the whipping boys as Pool extended their unbeaten run to 10 games.

The leaders tore Swansea apart with slick one-touch football in the first half and could have had far more than two goals from Humphreys by the break.

He struck first after 10 minutes with a great 20-yard finish off the base of the post having run from the halfway line.

Three minutes after City had striker Marc Richards sent off for a foul on Chris Westwood, Humphreys added the 39th-minute second goal, finishing a great four-man move from close range.

His hat-trick was completed with a looping header from Michael Barron's cross after 68 minutes.

Four minutes later Darrell Clarke's pass allowed Tommy Widdrington to score a simple fourth.

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