Swansea City buried the ghosts of last May's 7-1 drubbing at the hands of Hartlepool with a credible 2-2 draw against the league leaders.
A goal from player-manager Nick Cusack and a well-executed penalty by Jamie Wood was enough for a share of the spoils at The Vetch, but the result was not enough to satisfy Cusack.
The lack of concentration and abundance of errors in defence that had angered Cusack in the defeats against Bristol Rovers and York, was again all too clear to see as Mark Tinkler opened the scoring on 14 minutes.
A deflected Gordon Watson effort fell to Tinkler on the edge of the box, who made no mistake and fired low past the hapless Roger Freestone.
But the home side made an excellent response, inflicting a period of sustained pressure on the Pool.
And the pressure paid off when the ever-youthful Cusack rose at the back post to guide a deep Paul Reid corner into the roof of the net.
The Swans continued to come out on top in a feisty midfield battle and when another Reid corner was met by Tinkler's fist it gave the Swans a gift of an opportunity to take the lead.
Wood cheekily rolled the ball home from the spot to the delight of much of the crowd of 3,370.
But the sloppy defending Cusack had talked about re-emerged as veteran Gordon Watson equalised within the minute.
The striker benefitted from Paul Arnison's in-roads into the heart of the Swans' defence and pounced in similar fashion to Tinkler's earlier effort.
But it was the chances that Pool missed that Cusack will want to put right before Wednesday's League Cup visit of Wolves.
"We'll go out with the same attitude and hope to cause an upset," said Cusack. "We can score goals but it is the other end that we have to worry about.
"It's sloppy defending and I've told them I'm sick to the back teeth with it."
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