North hails super sub Marquis

Cheltenham coach Shaun North singled out substitute John Marquis for praise following a 1-0 victory over Hartlepool on Saturday.

The hosts dominated and hit the post through Terry Gornell and Marquis, before the latter then saw a header brilliantly tipped on to the crossbar by goalkeeper Scott Flinders. It looked like the breakthrough was not forthcoming but substitute Koby Arthur popped up to head home in the final minute and seal the three points. However, it was on-loan Millwall forward Marquis who caught North's eye. "He came on and did well," North said. "We know he will work hard and he can be a nuisance around defenders. "He showed that and he was a little bit unlucky when he hit the post and then forced a good save out of the keeper with his header." North added: "We worked hard and kept knocking on the door. Their keeper made a couple of good saves and they got some blocks in but our reward came in the end. "You always have a little niggle in the back of your mind that it's not going to be your day but the good thing is that we are creating chances and making keepers make saves. Maybe we need to work a little bit on our finishing. "Its nice to be unbeaten and it shows that we are doing things right. Hopefully it will stay that way for a while yet." Hartlepool manager Colin Cooper was disappointed to lose the game in the dying moments and frustrated that one of the smallest players on the pitch had headed the winner. He said: "The big question will be how young Arthur is the one to get the header. We will have a look at it and see if there was anything we could have done better "We were hanging on a little bit towards the end but while I don't think we did enough to win, I thought we did enough not to lose. "All they were doing was loading everything into our 18-yard box and looking for a knock down, which is fine but we have to be able to deal with that. No matter what you do between the two boxes, the 18-yard box is the be all and end all and one has fallen to them. "Scott Flinders has had to pull off one outstanding save from John Marquis and then young Koby Arthur has got his head on one. Fair play them but we go home disappointed. "We have come away from home and laid our bodies on the line and we certainly didn't deserve to lose." Breaking news, transfer gossip, line ups and goal alerts from your football club - delivered direct to your mobile. Sign up for Sky Sports Alerts