SEVEN days earlier, Neale Cooper was bemoaning the lack of experience on his substitutes bench.

As Hartlepool United drew with Barnsley, Cooper had little but youth to call on from his pool of replacements.

As United lost at Oldham on Saturday, Cooper had little but youth in his starting line-up.

By the time his defenders had been opened up far too easily three times, Pool's side boasted an average age of 22, with eight products of the club's youth team having had a run out at Boundary Park.

For Cooper there was no boundary to the limits of his frustration.

First he saw reliable central defenders Chris Westwood and Micky Nelson slip up to contrive an opening goal for Oldham, before Kevin Betsy took over.

Betsy was the one who didn't exactly get away, but the one who didn't stay because he wanted more.

On loan at Victoria Park, with Cooper interested in making his move a permanent one, the Pool boss wouldn't be held to ransom over his contract demands.

The former Barnsley man was offered more at Oldham and went where the money was greater.

The script which stated Betsy would score was penned when he signed a contract until the end of the season last Wednesday.

He took his goal well, but was never given a hard time by full back Matty Robson.

Man of the match against Barnsley, Robson never got close to the winger, when a firm tackle and early clattering into the stands wouldn't have gone amiss.

Instead, the only resistance to Betsy was the statutory booing from the away fans.

"He scored a good goal, but he never hit one like that when he was with us,'' joked Cooper.

"Unfortunately he did it against us. We could have got closer and tighter to him at times and defended better.''

Oldham weren't afraid to lump the ball forward from one end of the field to the other. Their central defenders seemed to enjoy agricultural clearances.

And their opening goal came when keeper Les Pogliacomi lumped the ball out of his hands deep into the Pool half.

Westwood misjudged it and, as it fell behind, Nelson was shrugged off the ball by John Eyre.

Betsy got the goal everyone was half-expecting. Coming in from the right side he fired a shot high above Provett.

Pool's first came from the unlikeliest of sources. With the ball 30 yards from goal, Westwood tried his luck. A low shot bounced and rolled through the defensive line into the net.

But the lifeline lasted all of four minutes because substitute Jermaine Johnson fired in a shot which might have spun up off Tinkler on it's way into the net.

A second for Pool arrived in injury time when Adam Griffin expertly steered a header past his own keeper.

Result: Oldham Athletic 3, Hartlepool United 2.

Read more about Hartlepool here.