Joe Keith crashed in the goal of the game - but it was too little too late to prevent Colchester United from suffering their second CocaCola League One defeat of the season.

Eifion Williams and Adam Boyd had already put Hartlepool on the winning trail when Keith curled in another of his trademark free-kicks - a carbon copy of his goal in the win over Doncaster Rovers at Layer Road on Saturday - in the dying seconds of time added on.

It was Keith's third League and cup goal of the season and all of them from direct free-kicks just outside the penalty area.

That said, Hartlepool's Victoria Ground has seldom proved a happy hunting ground for the U's five wins in 42 years - since their first outing there in February 1962.

And so it proved again this time as the more powerful and determined north-easterners ran-out comfortable and deserved two-goal winners.

Shorn of several key players because of injury - including influential midfielder Kevin Watson - and forced to play Gavin Johnson, who had been up all night with diarrhoea and sickness, the U's were always second best and only good fortune and poor finishing prevented 'Pool's' margin of victory from being greater.

Only lively Millwall loanee striker Ben May and ever-improving full-back Greg Halford showed any real appetite for a fight.

And clearly demoralised by their own lack of penetration, the U's never threaten their hosts' defence - until Keith's last-gasp goal after falling 2-0 behind in the 70th minute.

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Published Tuesday, August 31, 2004

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