Poole - in?

By Charlie Summerbell
October 12 2011

It's not unusual over the years for Hartlepool United to build up the hopes of their fans, then let them come crashing down with a disappointing performance, and it happened again last weekend when they hardly showed up for their League One match at Notts County.

Losing 3-0 in front of a live telly audience was no more than they deserved ... as the old saying goes, they were lucky to get nil.

It was easily their worst performance of the season and Mick Wadsworth has made it clear he is ready to make changes for Saturday’s Victoria Park game at home to struggling Wycombe Wanderers.

After winning their first nine games, Pools have now lost two on the bounce and while the home defeat against Sheffield Wednesday was unlucky, the same can’t be said about the match at Meadow Lane.

Wadsworth told the Northern Echo: "We're not getting anything from various areas of the pitch. I'm not going to name names, that would be unfair because it's been a collective cock-up.

"We've had a fairly settled rhythm the past few weeks, but this is the one where we say ‘right, it's time to do something else now'.

"One, two, or three of them might be disappointed next week because they were in and now they're out. That's better than we were last year when we had to stick with it because we didn't have a lot of support - we couldn't make many changes then, but now we can.''

Meanwhile, skipper Sam Collins expects a positive reaction to the County letdown. He told the Echo: "We were disappointed because we lost the game on Sunday. Some of us were angry at ourselves because we didn't play as well as we have been doing.

"On the positive front we all agreed that we've not got to let this happen again and bounce back.

"We need to win next week. It will be a tough game because they are always tough.

"But our home form has been pretty good and obviously with the crowds as well now, we need them to stick by us.

"We've had two bad results on the trot but we have still got the endeavour to win football matches and it's down to us next week to put ona good performance and win."

Pools will be without injured Nobby Solano, but he won’t be the only player to miss out after last weekend. James Poole is almost certain to start after his four goals for the reserves during the week, and James Brown might also have a chance.

But whoever plays, unless that bright start to the season is ti be wasted, Pools MUST  win.