Halifax slump to new low to frustrate Heath

Nicky Deverdics and Liam Donnelly scored in the first seven minutes as Hartlepool found the net twice in a home game for only the second time this season.

Rhys Oates added a third after half-an-hour as Halifax were submerged in a flood of Pools goals, which then mercifully dried up until Conor Newton’s late effort.

Top of Town boss Billy Heath’s to-do list was surely not concede early, so Deverdics’s fourth-minute opener will have left him fuming, especially the ease with which it came as the left-back played a superb one-two, charged through the Halifax defence and slotted past Sam Johnson.

Heath’s luck continued to be all bad as referee Joseph Johnson, who had already dismissed Scott Garner against Bromley, then harshly adjudged the Town captain to have pushed Rhys Oates in the penalty box, and Liam Donnelly scored from the spot.

Just when the storm appeared to have subsided, Oates beat Johnson from 12 yards after a run by Michael Woods through a befuddled Town defence.

Deverdics nearly scored his second with a magnificent free-kick from 25 yards near the corner of the Town box, but was unlucky to see it crash off the far post.

Hartlepool continued to be quicker, stronger and more aggressive than Town, and remained the dominant force in the second-half, with Newton rounding off the scoring late-on with a tap-in from Michael Woods’ pass.

Guiseley’s match at AFC Fylde was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.