AFTER the danger of being upstaged by his strike partner, Adam Boyd showed yesterday why he is a man in demand.

In front of watching Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy, Eifion Williams put Pool a goal to the good and was the first-half scourge of the Colchester defence.

But you can't keep a good man down and 21-year-old hot property Boyd led the visitors a merry second-half dance, bagging his third goal of the season to boot with a neat header.

His goal even brought a ripple of applause from McCarthy, sat alongside Boyd's agent all game, but will a bid follow?

McCarthy departed with five minutes to go and the talk yesterday was of an imminent move. The transfer window shuts today, but remains open in the Coca Cola Leagues.

And Boyd might just be the man to bring the fizz back to Wearside.

Yesterday\rquote s goal was his 25th League goal in 40 starts for his hometown club.

"I know it sounds boring because I've said it a lot, but he has been outstanding," said boss Neale Cooper.

"He has so much natural ability and can see and do things others can't."

The win put Saturday's Swindon misery to bed and now Pool have ten points from six games, sitting in eighth place - four places and one point better off than last season.

"That was a much improved performance from Swindon on Saturday," added Cooper.

" We worked hard and the strikers made their defenders work hard."

Pool were awarded a free-kick, moved to the edge of the area after defender Liam Chilvers kicked the ball away and Gavin Strachan's low effort curled across goal.

Goalkeeper Dimi Konstantopoulos was handed his first League start and he looked on as a piledriver from Ben May whistled over the angle of post and bar from 20 yards.

Boyd's first impact came when he turned and drilled a shot at keeper Aidan Davison from the edge of the area on 18 minutes.

Sedgefield-born Davison will have welcomed the tame effort - he conceded eight playing for Grimsby in last season's Victoria Park rout.

Big striker May turned the Pool defence to earn the space to shoot, but could only fire low at Konstantopoulos.

Williams became the third player to be booked in a scrappy opening 27 minutes, after sliding in late on defender Wayne Brown.

Colchester were a fit and physically niggly side and it wasn't too hard to see why the well-drilled visitors set the early pace in the embryonic table.

But it was Williams who showed the strength on 38 minutes to put Pool in front.

Boyd, under pressure, flicked the ball through for his strike partner and the Welshman shrugged off the attentions of Brown, outpaced the defender and confidently stroked the ball past Davison for his second goal in as many home league games.

Williams stretched to try and meet a Micky Nelson flick-on, but even with his legs elasticated to the limit he couldn't reach.

Moments later the scorer had a glorious chance to make it two.

He ran into space on the right side and took Kevin Betsy's pass on the half-volley only to slice into the Town End.

With Newcastle scout David Mills looking on, along with representatives from Tottenham, Boyd could have made it two 62 seconds into the second period, after Davison hopelessly missed a high ball and Nelson headed on.

Boyd tried to shoot with the keeper AWOL, but was blocked out.

He should have scored on the hour mark. Tony Sweeney floated the ball into inviting space behind the defence and, eight yards from goal, the striker screwed a low shot horribly across the six yard box and out for a throw; McCarthy remained unmoved, motionless in his seat.

But at the other end, Pool were stretched when the red shirts attacked and Westwood had to be at his best to twice make vital tackles.

Konstantopoulos made a fine low save when May latched onto a long throw and got the better of Nelson in the penalty area.

The big Greek was given the nod ahead of Jim Provett, with Cooper wary of Colchester's liking for lumping high and long balls into the danger area.

And, with Mark Tinkler out because of Achilles and knee injuries, Cooper wanted more height in his team.

A piece of Boyd skill set up Williams, but the scorer took a wild swing and missed the ball.

Boyd was pushed over by defender Greg Halford and, from the set-piece he made it two.

Strachan, who got better as the game went on, floated it over and Boyd, with his back to goal, flicked a header high past Davison.

Confidence flowing, Boyd flicked the ball over Halford, ran around to collect and volleyed in Humphreys. The chance came to nothing, but it was something else for McCarthy to consider.

With the last kick of the game, Joseph Keith curled a fine free-kick past Konstantopoulos, but by then it was game over.

Result: Hartlepool 2 Colchester 1

Read more about Hartlepool here.