RITCHIE Humphreys believes Hartlepool United have earned the respect of Division Two.

Pool have now gone 28 games without a League defeat at Victoria Park, the longest stretch in English football.

On Saturday they drew 0-0 with Colchester, but suffered the wrath of many fans after the visitors packed their defence following the early dismissal of Alan White.

Pool spent 87 minutes unsuccessfully trying to break through and Humphreys admitted: "It was very frustrating for us - and since I've been here that's happened a couple of times.

"A lot of teams come here with a game plan anyway which is to sit back and defend in numbers, but getting a man sent-off like they did just changed the game completely.

"Sometimes it can ruin a game like it did on Saturday. We controlled the game and had chances - maybe against 11 men it would have been more open and we would have come away with a win.''

He added: "Playing 11 men would have made the game more open, instead they shut up shop and that was it. But they are a good side and we picked up a point against a top-six team which is good - it's not the end of the world.

"And you have to give them some credit as well, look how well they defended and they did their job.

"The danger is that when we are pushing for that goal they would catch us on the break and it nearly happened at the end.

"Thankfully Jim was there. If that had happened it would have been a sickener.''

* Paul Arnison, on loan at Carlisle form Pool, netted a spectacular 35-yard effort on Saturday as the Cumbrians registered their first win in 13 games.

Read more about Hartlepool here.