KEEPER Wes Foderingham was full of praise for opposite number Scott Flinders after the stopper helped Hartlepool claim a 1-1 draw at the County Ground, writes ANDY WARREN.

The 26-year-old was in inspired form at the start of the second half to twice deny Adam Rooney and superbly save a Gary Roberts volley all in the space of 60 seconds, before Andy Monkhouse found the net against his former club to level things up.

Foderingham was most impressed with the one-handed save from Roberts’ shot, and the Town keeper believes the three quick saves played a vital role in the outcome of the game.

“The best one for me was the one he stopped with his left hand after Robbo (Gary Roberts) hit one on the volley, that was a great save,” he said. “He didn’t know too much about the others and he managed to get his body in the way and made himself big, but those saves were a turning point in the game for sure."

After a string of first-half chances Foderingham insisted Town could have been out of sight by the break, but he was left disappointed with the goal he eventually conceded.

“In the first half we created enough to put the ball in the net more than we did, and in the second half we tried to get an early goal and that just didn’t happen,” he said.

“To be fair to their keeper he made three or four really good saves, and then they put a bit of pressure on us and got the goal.

“It was a sloppy defensive error, with a ball not cleared and it is knocked back in. They had two there ready to tap it in, and we weren’t picking them up.

“I made a couple of little errors before the goal, they had a shot and it took a deflection and I turned it round the post.

“If I had caught it they wouldn’t have had the corner which led to the goal, that’s the way I’m looking at it, and I am not too happy with my own performance.”

Town were back in familiar surroundings after enduring three away games on incredibly difficult pitches, but Foderingham was left perplexed as to why the Robins couldn’t get into their rhythm on the immaculate County Ground surface.

“In the past few games we have played on bad pitches and the ground staff have done a great job to make it nice for us, but we just didn’t see out the game,” he said.

“At times we played really well and played good football, but we just didn’t get the end product. The gaffer told us it wasn’t good enough and he was quite calm, and he is right. We need to be better than that if we want to go up.”