SO Victoria Park is the most inhospitable football ground in the country is it?

According to football and lifestyle expert Andy Stockhausen of the Bristol Evening Post it is.

His preview of Pool's encounter with Bristol Rovers on Friday caused ructions along Clarence Road, to the extent that Pool are likely to take further action against Stockhausen for the pathetic slur.

"If there was a League table for the most inhospitable football grounds in the country, Victoria Park would be championship winning material,'' he wrote before the ignoramus told his readers "Hartlepool United's ramshackle headquarters presents a mirror image of a fishing town that has fallen on hard times.''

Add the old chestnut of a bleak Northern outpost and you have one of the laziest pieces of journalism (and the word is used in its loosest sense) possible.

Of course we all know that Bristol is the centre of the universe.

But his rant couldn't have been further from the truth.

There's plenty of grounds less attractive, less hospitable and less welcoming than Hartlepool United.

And on Saturday it was hospitable on the pitch as well as off.

Unfortunately, Pool went out in the second half intent on proving him wrong as they showed their hospitality in handing Bristol Rovers a point they hardly looked capable of earning.

Because for 45 minutes, Pool were on top with the visitors having all the tactical nous and threat of a pub team, but none of the class associated with the George and Dragon.

But just like recent games at Cheltenham and Kidderminster, Pool didn't slay the Dragon and failed to take the points.

And with it went their hopes of the play-offs. 24 points to play for and Pool can still reach the top seven, but it will take some doing.

Pool are 11th, eight points adrift of seventh-placed Shrewsbury with eight games to go. Now they need seven or eight wins and hope the likes of Hull, Shrewsbury, Kidderminster and Rushden slip up.

Statistics can be bent most ways to back up facts but Pool have only won three times in their last ten games and it's the last four games that have really hurt Chris Turner's ambitions, two points from 12 has left them playing catch up.

"Until it's mathematically impossible we will keep going for the play-offs,'' insisted a defiant Turner. But privately he knows the chance is all but gone.

"We've dropped points this week but I feel we could have won both games. We created chances and went back to playing how we had been performing at home.

"It's disappointing because over the last two years we would have won that game 1-0. We wouldn't have created many chances but we would have dug it out 1-0, at the moment we cannot do that.

"We either have to score a barrel load of goals or we get the results like we have this week. Confidence is there among the players but it comes from within. Certain players seem to wait for us to go in front before they start expressing themselves or feeling comfortable on the ball.

"I would think every player going out to play should be brimming with confidence because we have a tremendous home record - we haven't lost here since October, so there is no need for fear. They are playing on a great surface and should be oozing confidence.

"It just seems that we need to score first and then we start. But in the second half we never really dominated like we thought we would at half-time.''

While Southend, Torquay, Rushden and Orient were all sent packing as Pool went on the rampage, there was nothing else forthcoming to add to Gordon Watson's typically superb finish.

Ritchie Humphreys floated the ball from left to right and Watson took a touch before cracking the ball into the net and back out after hitting the stantion.

Mark Tinkler and Darrell Clarke got in each others way in the penalty area to squander a chance, Watson hit a post from a close range header and the only goal to show was the striker's 14th of the season.

"Gordon is good at being able to get something that wins games and gets us points,'' said Turner. "It's very hard to put your finger on why we didn't get a second goal.''

Pool started a little nervy, but with the goal came confidence. Humphreys knew how bad defender Mark Foran was, because he and Adam Boyd tortured the lumbering centre-half at the Memorial Stadium last month (did you know Bristol Rovers play at a rugby ground and have been homeless since 1986?)

Humphreys ran at Foran, nutmegged him and then had the audacity to wave at the Mill House Stand on his way past the statue in the number six shirt.

It was all looking so promising, because Rovers' sole tactic was to try and lump balls in behind the Pool defence for Nathan Ellington to get onto, but right on half-time Ross Weare got ahead of Graeme Lee, skirted around Anthony Williams and Pool were reliant on Mark Robinson to slide in and clear off the line, Williams blocked the rebound and that was it for the first-half.

But Ellington is dangerous, far too good for Bristol Rovers, and he cut inside Chris Westwood before curling the ball around Williams to level.

"He was the difference between three and one point,'' said Turner. "You look for little things you could have done to stop the goal, but he's a quality player.

"What you saw was two goals of quality. One from an experienced player and one from someone who will go on the play at a higher level of football. I thought we did enough to win the game, but at this moment in time we can't buy a clean sheet.''

Read more about Hartlepool FC here.