HARTLEPOOL United have now suffered a third away defeat in League Two after being beaten by a goal to nil against Sutton United. 

Ben Goodliffe got the only goal of the game in the 25th minute at Gander Green Lane to hand the home side all three points in a battle between the two newly promoted teams. 

Pools are yet to pick up a point on the road this season but have countered that with four home wins at Victoria Park this season. They currently sit fifth in the table. 

Manager Dave Challinor told BBC Radio Tees Sport: "You've seen it before in terms of the teams that play like Sutton. They play at a hig really high tempo, they play forward and they play to their strengths which are there front four. They play for set pieces and long throws. 

"It takes a really good team and a good set of players to be able to deal with that in possession of the ball. The likelihood is, and we spoke about it before, that the longer the game goes, the more the game potentially opens up because the game maybe becomes stretched and then you can't do what they do for that extended period. 

"The ball ended up in our goal, once again, from a set piece. That's ultimately costs us.

"It worked as we thought and the game opened up towards the back end. We thought we could make changes that made it more expansive alongside them sort of dropping off a little bit and we got into better areas and carved out good opportunities. 

"Unfortunately we've not taken one of them opportunities because although we would have loved to have come away with all three points, even taking a point would have been a big result for us."

Pools are back on the rad this weekend where they come up against an Oldham Athletic side who sit rock bottom with three points from seven games.