Hartlepool 3 Millwall 0

By that point, the home side were three goals up and almost assured of breaking a run of three straight defeats.

Steve Morison - the hero in last week's game against the Dons - was unlucky to see his effort hit the woodwork early on as Millwall looked for the opener. But they were chasing the game on 12 minutes when a looping cross from Sam Collins was nodded away to Peter Hartley, who smacked the ball through the crowd and beyond David Forde.

Just ten minutes later, Millwall were playing head tennis with the home side on the edge of their own box. But Ritchie Humphreys' header looped over the jumping Andy Frampton, leaving the Lions back-line looking sheepish as Adam Boyd ran in, rounded Forde and doubled the lead.

Millwall had clawed a similar deficit back to win 3-2 in this fixture last season, but Hartlepool weren't hanging around to see if history could repeat itself. Leon McSweeney ran at the defence down the right on 29 minutes before knocking the ball to Neil Austin. His booming cross looped to the back post, where Armann Bjornsson had the relatively straightforward task of heading the ball down into the net.

Second-half substitute Lewis Grabban tested Scott Flinders a couple of times, but Millwall were unable to cut into Hartlepool's healthy lead. They will hope to have better luck at home to play-off challengers Wallsall on Saturday.

Hartlepool: Flinders, Austin, Collins, Hartley, Humphreys (Clark 82), Liddle, McSweeney (Fredriksen 71), Monkhouse, Sweeney, Boyd (Greulich 82), Bjornsson

Subs not used: Cook, Cherel, Rowell

Millwall: Forde, Dunne, Frampton (Smith 61), Robinson, Ward, Bolder (Laird 46), Schofield, Hackett (Grabban 46), Henry, Abdou, Morison

Subs not used: Sullivan, Grimes, Fuseini, Price

Attendance: 3,153