TWO LATE goals gave Hartlepool United a 3-1 victory over The Saddlers at a wind-swept Victoria Park.

Walsall came bursting out of the blocks, forcing a couple of early corners, the second of which was only half-cleared to Scott Dann who played in Martin Butler and he made no mistake to open the scoring.

The home side, who have not tasted a League defeat since November 4th, were rocked and within a minute, Michael Dobson set Par Cederqvist racing away and he managed to beat Konstantopulos to the ball in a wide position before attempting to cross to Butler. But Hartlepool were able to get men back to clear the danger.

It was a purposeful start for Richard Money's men but the home side started to get into proceedings and in the 17th minute Dobson defended superbly at the near post as he cleared James Brown's cross ahead of Eifion Williams.

Then shortly afterwards it was Daniel Fox's turn to clear in the nick of time when Richie Barker beat Craig Pead out on The Pool left and crossed low and invitingly into the danger zone.

The home side were starting to enjoy plenty of possession as the blustery conditions played a big part in the proceedings. With 21 minutes on the clock, Barker found space to get in a low effort that was easy for Clayton Ince to gather.

Just past the half-hour mark there was a nervy goalmouth melee as The Saddlers defended for their lives. Firstly Barker's effort was blocked before the ball found its way over to the Hartlepool right where they had men over, however Tony Bedeau managed to deflect Liddle's effort away as the ball was cleared to safety.

There was a booking for Cederqvist on 36 minutes as he tangled with Michael Nelson, then Dean Keates saw yellow soon afterwards for a late challenge on Liddle.

With tthe half-time interval Sweeney took the initiative and tried a shot from distance after spotting Ince off his line, but the ball was dragged wide.

The half ended with Butler getting booked for what appeared to be dissent.

Bedeau was replaced by Kris Taylor during the interval, but it was the home side who started the brighter of the two teams and like Walsall had done at the start of the first period, they forced a series of corners.

After the lively Brown had caused more problems out wide, a flag-kick from Ritchie Humpreys was met by the head of Ben Clark, however Ince was equal to it as he pushed the ball over the crossbar. From the resulting corner, the home side managed to draw level when Nelson found space to power home a header.

The Saddlers tried to hit back straight away as Dobson's free-kick found the head of Scott Dann but his attempt landed just wide, then Mark Wright broke away down the wing but his cross was easy for the 'keeper to claim at his near post.

With Hector Sam on in place of Cederqvist, Wright had another opportunity as he made progress out wide, but with Sam in space at the far post, he opted to pass to Butler in the middle and his ball in search of Sam was cut out and cleared.

In the next raid, Sam was guilty of trying to pass when a shot would have been the better option as he escaped the attentions of The Pool back-line.

Ishmel Demontagnac was introduced into the action with just under a quarter-of-an-hour to go as he replaced Wright and he had a good opportunity with time running out when Sam chased a long ball forward and caused more problems before crossing low with Konstantopulos floundering. However, Demontagnac fired over as he met the ball.

There was controversy with just two minutes left on the clock as Butler was played in with a neat through-ball only for Nelson to clearly hold him back inside the area as he prepared to shoot. To the amazement of the 277 travelling fans behind the goal, the referee allowed play to continue and the home side duly went up the other end and won a free-kick in a dangerous position.

The free-kick was taken short to the experienced Humphreys who hit a powerful shot from around 25 yards that appeared to take a couple of deflections on its way past Ince's despairing dive.

It was cruel on The Saddlers and we were to suffer even more misfortune in stoppage time as Barker appeared to be offside as he strode through and tucked the ball home to make it 3-1.