THE misery rumbles on for Hartlepool United.

After the lavish charges into the play-offs in the last two seasons, Pool are at the wrong end of the table. Last night's home defeat to Cheltenham plunged Chris Turner's side to second bottom of Division Three, a position which had become alien under Turner's stewardship.

The win at Shrewsbury on August 18 is Pool's sole win this season and again they were let down in front of goal.

Pool have found the net once since the Shrewsbury win, and last night was their fourth game without a goal.

After a lifeless opening, Paul Stephenson tried to inject some pace into the game when he ran at the visiting defence, but he was soon crowded out.

Mark Tinkler met Stephenson's swirlng corner but his strong header went straight at keeper Steve Book. The midfielder then found space wide and his low, teasing cross evaded the on-rushing Kevin Henderson.

After Pool found their spark, Cheltenham weren't to be outdone and Lee Howells drove wide.

Mark Robinson sent in a deep cross which hung in the penalty area in the swirling wind. Stephenson headed back across and Henderson's header could only find the midriff of Book.

Howells was undeterred by his miss and tried his luck from 30-yards, the effort whistling over the bar.

Without a home win yet this season and with five points from six games, Turner saw this week's double home header - Kidderminster are at Pool on Saturday - as a chance to start catching up with the leading pack.

Their aspirations, however, suffered a double blow on the half-hour mark when Kevin Henderson, scorer of 19 goals last season but just one this campaign, was carried off after being clattered from behind by Jamie Victory. Graeme Lee then hobbled off the field with what appeared to be a back injury.

Jermaine Easter came on for the striker and his former Wolves youth teammate Gordon Simms joined James Sharp in defence.

Pool's biggest failing this season has been their lack of goals and without Henderson it was difficult to see where they were coming from.

Their task was made even harder as the assistant referee on the Mill House side infuriated both players and fans with a string of bizarre decisions.

Just like the the first-half, the second-period took it's time to warm up, Mark Yates' 55th minute drive being the first event of any note.

With regular defender Micky Barron and Chris Westwood on the injured list and Lee trudging off, Pool suffered another scare when Sharp laid flat out on the surface after a heavy tackle.

The defender was OK to continue after treatment, but his side were lucky to escape a minute later. Julian Alsop towered above the defence, but his header was cleared off the line by Tommy Widdrington.

The run of strange decisions continued, but Pool were the beneficiaries when Stephenson's shot rolled wide and referee Mike Pike awarded a corner.

Mark Robinson showed defensive maturity beyond his years as he shadowed the advancing Martin Devaney into the penalty area and the winger scuffed his shot under pessure.

Pool's best chance saw Ritchie Humphrey's cross from the left find Tinkler, but he couldn't get any power behind his volley and Book collected.

Turner's side had a couple of tame efforts, before Devaney struck. The winger made up for his earlier failing when he evaded a trio of challengers and rifled low past Williams into the corner of the net.

Read more about Hartlepool here.