EXETER CITY 1
Tony Kellow (pen)
HARTLEPOOL 2
Roy Hogan, Alan Shoulder

Match Report by Trina Lake

THE GREAT goalscoring gap in Exeter City's armoury was exposed once again at St James's Park on Saturday as they dipped to Fourth Division front runners Hartlepool. All they had to show for their considerable efforts was a Tony Kellow goal from the penalty spot in the second half. But defensive lapses had already let Roy Hogan and Alan Shoulder establish a two-goal lead for Hartlepool before City really got into an attacking gear. They share the worst scoring record in the division with just 13 goals from 14  games equalled only by the inept Torquay United- and three of those have been Kellow penalties. The consolation has been a string of solid defensive performances that have kept the goals against tally more than respectable. When there are blunders at the back-punished mercilessly by the likes of lively Hartlepool City's goal famine is highlighted all the more vividly. They must have had good 75 per cent of the match in terms of possession against Hartlepool. City couldn't be criticised for a lack of effort. Yet for all their hard work they were never direct enough in and around the penalty area and paid the price. Hartlepool goalkeeper Eddie Blackburn saw plenty of the ball but was never seriously tested as City's old reluctance to fire in shots reappeared. Manager Colin Appleton pin-pointed the  problem when he said: "We never showed enough variety or quality around their box to break them down. "A win today after beating Halifax on Wednesday would have been fantastic. for everybody connected with the club. Losing again at home has to be disap- pointing and it is bound to have a drastic effect on the gates. "For a desire and determi- nation to go out there and get on with the job with a will to win, you cannot fault the players at this club. Whether we have enough quality is another matter." Appleton stuck by the same team that beat Halifax and looked as if he would be rewarded for his faith as City made a bright start on Saturday. Darren Gale met Gary second minute Jackson's second cross with an overhead kick that Blackburn could only parry and the 'keeper had to go down quickly at Martin Ling's feet two minutes later as the City winger tried to get on the end of a cross from the left. Hartlepool worked hard to keep City in check and their surprise and frustration at being given the run-around by their more lowly hosts led to a few niggling tackles that went largely unpunished by Middlesex referee Colin Downey. He booked Jackson for a touchline tussle with Keith Nobbs and Hartlepool's Brian Honour for bringing Steve Harrower down from behind. City felt they had a perfectly good goal disallowed in the 26th minute. Jim McNichol broke forward from right back and crossed for Gale to force the ball home from close range but Mr Downey reckoned he pushed Blackburn in the pro- cess and brought the celebrations to an abrupt halt. Gale got in again on the half hour to hit a 15-yard shot on the turn which Blackburn did well to keep out. In contrast to the busy Blackburn, City's John Shaw did not have a thing to save until the 37th minute when Honour made a pow- erful run through from midfield and shot low to the right but the 'keeper saved fairly comfortably. Perhaps those long periods of inactivity had lulled Shaw into a false sense of security because when Hartlepool did throw something dangerous at him he did not cope too well. John Impey made the in- itial error by failing to clear the ball at the far post in the 44th minute but Shaw compounded his defender's mi- stake by flapping at the return cross. He pushed the ball straight to Hogan who sent a deft chip into the top corner to make it 1-0. Hogan was then promptly booked for a foul on Harrower within a minute of breaking the deadlock. Mr Downey, in City's bad books for disallowing Gale's goal, earned himself another black mark early in the second half when winger Alan Crawford was knocked out by a powerful header to the back of his skull by team- mate Keith Viney. As he lay unconscious in dthe Hartlepool penalty area, completely unattended, Mr Downey let play continue and it took the sporting Blackburn to kick the ball into touch deliberately before he would stop the game. After a lengthy spell of treatment Crawford tried to continue but was still groggy and came off to be whisked away to hospital with concussion. He was released later but was told to report immediately to a casualty department near his Bristol home if he suffered any further ill effects. Crawford's departure gave former Manchester United midfielder Danny Keough the chance to make his debut for City. Within two minutes City were 2-0 down although Keough, who showed some intelligent use of the ball, could hardly be blamed for that. Blackburn's long kick was touched on by John Borthwick to Alan Shoulder who broke away from Marker, spotted Shaw in no-man's land way off his line, and lobbed the ball home from 20 yards. Determined City battled to get back into the game with a little more urgency and got about the only break to go their way in 90 minutes when Gale was brought down by David Linighan for a 63rd minute penalty. Kellow, in familiar fashion, blasted the ball past Blackburn and then set about trying to inspire City to snatch an equaliser. He is trying so hard to set things up that his consider- able presence is missed in the penalty area where he was always at his most lethal. At the moment City need him to be in two places at once and even for Kellow that's a tall order. City kept trying to stretch Hartlepool out of position with Gale and Ling getting good openings that came to nothing. But the solid-looking North Easterners held on well for their ninth win of the season to keep themsel- ves up among the pacemak- ers.

Exeter City:
Shaw, Harrower, Viney, McNichol, Impey, Marker, Ling, Jackson, Kellow, Gale, Crawford. Sub Keough (on for Crawford 55min).

Hartlepool United:
Blackburn, Robinson, Chilton, Hogan, Smith, Linighan, Honour, Shoulder, Borthwick, Walker, Nobbs. Sub Dixon (on for Borthwick 64min).

Attendance: 1,934.