Hartlepool earned a well-deserved 2-0 victory at Crawley thanks to goals from Rollin Menayese and Travis Johnson in the second half. This result propelled Hartlepool out of the bottom two of League Two.
This was Pools' third league victory of the year, their first on the road in nearly nine months, and it snapped a losing streak of 14 League Two away games.
Crawley suffered their first loss under new manager Matty Etherington, failing to generate a shot on goal until stoppage time.
Prior to the game, Etherington pushed his team to play with "a freedom" and acknowledged that back-to-back victories would provide the ideal setting for them to begin "looking above rather than below."
Before Etherington suffered a double injury blow with attacker Ashley Nadesan and stand-in captain Joel Lynch being pulled off in the first 17 minutes, James Balagizi ought to have challenged Pools goalkeeper Ben Killip early on.
On the half-hour, a fit-again Pools defender named Jamie Sterry created his team's first threat by cutting inside and forcing goalkeeper Ellery Balcombe to save a low shot
At the beginning of the second half, Pools' leading scorer Josh Umerah sent a header beyond before defender Reghan Tumilty rose to send a header wide.
In the 64th minute, defender Menayese of Pools scored his first goal for the team in front of the visiting supporters by heading in a corner from Callum Cooke.
In the 64th minute, defender Menayese of Pools scored his first goal for the team in front of the visiting supporters by heading in a corner from Callum Cooke.
Nine minutes later, off another Cooke corner, Johnson headed into his own net to make things better for Keith Curle's team.
The Reds had a very disappointing evening as their first shot on goal didn't come until James Tilley's header was saved by goalkeeper Killip in injury time.
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