Hartlepool: Turner feels the heat after hammering
Under-fire Chris Turner today admitted that Hartlepool United's feeble surrender to MK Dons has given his detractors a field day.
Pools slumped to their heaviest home league defeat in 15 years on Saturday as Paul Ince's classy Dons outfit ran riot to thrash the sorry hosts 5-0.
Turner said: "For the critics, it's a great day for them. You sense certain elements in the crowd but that's life.
"All you can do is keep working hard and hopefully the players can get the results and performances to put that result behind us.
"There's nobody more passionate than me to win games and get a winning team at this club.
"But sometimes you get let down and I got very let down on Saturday."
Ex-Pools striker Jermaine Easter's fourth-minute opener saw Pools go into their shells – they did not have one meaningful effort on goal while their closing down was half-hearted and defending loose.
Gary Liddle's own goal was followed by strikes from Peter Leven, Sam Baldock and Jason Puncheon, clinching the biggest away win at Victoria Park since Plymouth's 8-1 rout in May, 1994.
"I was speechless," added Turner.
"When the first goal went in, we just collapsed.
"I just didn't see that passion, that commitment which we expect from the team.
"It was not just two or three players. It was most of the team who were poor and second best."
Irish striker Denis Behan – a 40th-minute sub on Saturday – will start tomorrow night's daunting trip to Charlton after eight weeks out.
Defender Sam Collins (flu) was badly missed on Saturday, and he could be absent again at The Valley.
HARTLEPOOL: Flinders, Sweeney, Clark, Liddle, Austin, Jones (Larkin 63), Gamble, Humphreys, Monkhouse, Boyd, Bjornsson (Behan 39). Subs not used: Cook, McSweeney, Haslam, Fredriksen, Cherel. Booked: Liddle, Monkhouse, Austin
MK DONS: Gueret, Lewington, Doumbe, McCracken, Woodards, Easter (Baldock 75), Leven (Randall 69), Gleeson, Puncheon, Chadwick (Townsend 59), Wilbraham. Subs not used: Stirling, Howell, D Powell, Morgan. Booked: Puncheon, Easter. Goals: Easter 4, Liddle 22og, Leven 54, Baldock 77, Puncheon 82
Att: 3,211. Ref: Chris Sarginson (Staffs)
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Friday 10 February 2012
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