Robins win penalty shoot-out
In a wide-open and intriguing second leg at Whaddon Road on Tuesday, Hartlepool needed to overcome Neil Grayson's away goal from Saturday's first leg at Victoria Park.
Pool boss Chris Turner got the best response from his side, when Paul Arnison scored just after the first quarter of an hour and give the away side a 1-0 lead, 2-1 on aggregate, thus cancelling The Robins away goal from the first leg.
However, Cheltenham boss Steve Cotterill saw his side respond nine minutes later, when Lee Williams equalised to bring the Gloucestershire side back to level terms at the half-time break.
The match remained deadlocked through the second half and two periods of extra-time before penalties would decide who would go to Cardiff next Monday.
With the scores level at 4-4 after the first five rounds of penalties, the sixth sudden-death round would decide the tie.
After Cheltenham's Julian Alsop scored his spot-kick, The Pool's Richie Humphreys stepped up to face Robins goalkeeper Steve Book.
Humphreys blasted his spot-kick off the underside of the bar and out and the referee adjudged it to have no gone in, giving Cheltenham victory and Hartlepool a heart-breaking end to their season.
Click below for match stats:
Division Three play-off semi-final, second leg
Cheltenham 1-1 Hartlepool (after extra time)
(aggregate: 2-2, Cheltenham win 5-4 on penalties)
