STANDING on the Priestfield Stadium pitch as the teams wandered off, Martin Scott carried the look of the bloke who had thrown away his winning National Lottery ticket.

Staring into space, Scott - furiously animated on the bench in the closing stages minutes earlier - couldn't believe his squad was facing a near six-hour coach journey home with no reward.

Seven days earlier, Scott's verdict that his team deserved something against Brentford led to raised eyebrows among the faithful.

This time, the only eyebrows looking upwards were Scott's - and that was for inspiration from above after watching his side throw away chance after chance.

After the most mundane of first halves, Pool woke from their slumbers and proceeded to take the game to the home side.

But, just like at Scunthorpe in the LDV Vans Trophy last month, chance after chance was missed.

That they didn't take something from the game will go down as one of the mysteries of the season. Like why did Liverpool let Peter Crouch take a penalty on Saturday or why there is a group stage in the first round of the UEFA Cup.

After creating little against Brentford, Pool had plenty of openings against the team no longer managed by former Pool boss Neale Cooper - he walked out last week.

It wasn't as if Gillingham had that lift which the arrival a new manager usually brings.

They still didn't look a decent team and the scrappy nature of the only goal summed up Pool's day.

It also proved, as if it wasn't so blindingly obvious, that as long as Adam Boyd and Joel Porter are out of action, Pool will struggle to make an impression on the scoring charts this season. They've only scored nine in nine away games.

"We should have had something out of the game - but how many times have I sat here after a game and said that this season?'' asked Scott.

"It's so hard on the lads. We dominated the second half of the game and had good chances - but you have to take them when you create them.

"At the moment we are not doing that. First half and they started brighter and we were sloppy in the first ten minutes or so. We conceded a sloppy goal and lost the game through it.

"But we performed better and started to show what they are capable of doing. It was the sort of game that if we were still playing now we wouldn't have scored.

"The positive thing was our second half show. Circumstances at Gillingham last week meant it was going to be difficult and it was."

Jon Daly, Antony Sweeney, Mark Tinkler and Thomas Butler were all guilty of missing good chances to level.

As the minutes ticked by, Scott became more and more agitated on the bench as an abundance of decent openings passed by.

"The players have to take responsibility,'' added Scott. "And that's not just one person, it's right through the team - but I would be more concerned if we weren't creating the chances.

"The way the league table is, it is really really tight and we knew three wins on the trot took us right up the table.''

Now after back to back defeats, Pool are in 15th place, smack in the middle of the two main zones. They are four points off a play-off place, equally four points off the relegation zone.

With an away day to come at Bradford on Saturday before back to back League One games with Colchester and Bournemouth, Pool could do with at least six points from that group of fixtures.

Amid Pool's slack opening, the only goal came when Matthew Jarvis, after having a couple of efforts blocked, fed the ball wide to Andrew Crofts. He knocked in across the six yard box and a touch from Dimi Konstantopoulos deflected it onto Paul Shields who bundled it over the line.

Tommy Butler was bright in possession, but was a victim of some heavy handed treatment from the home side.

He reacted to a foul by Tom Williams, was yellow carded and eventually was sent off in the last couple of minutes for being booked again. He could count himself lucky not to have been dismissed for trying to throttle Williams after the foul.

Konstantopoulos had little to do after the break as all the play was at the other end. Sweeney met a tasty Ritchie Humphreys' cross and a header anywhere but straight at the keeper would have brought a leveller.

Then Micky Nelson headed over from an unmarked position, Tinkler appeared to lose his balance as he lined the ball up six yards out and Butler was played in neatly by Steven Istead only to push the ball tamely wide.

"I've played in plenty of games like that and I'm sure you have all watched games like that when a team does everything but score,'' reflected skipper Humphreys, who missed a good opening in injury-time when he cracked a 20-yard free-kick over the bar.

"We didn't start well and conceded a goal we all were not happy with, but then more than took the game to them.

"On another day we could have been looking at the same result as Wrexham last season when we scored five. In terms of chances created it was of that level.

"I was disappointed myself not to have hit the target with a free-kick in injury time.

"We didn't want a long journey back home after a defeat, but we paid the price for our start.''

Result: Gillingham 1, Hartlepool United 0.

Read more about Hartlepool here.