Coops - he's back

By Charlie Summerbell
December 29 2011

They say you should never go back, but Ken Hodcroft has never shown himself to be conventional in his role as Hartlepool United chairman, and appointing Neale Cooper as manager for a second time continues that trend.

Almost seven years after Cooper left Victoria Park just before their memorable League One play-off final appearance against Sheffield Wednesday, the big Scot is back … and most of the club’s fans are delighted.

Cooper is held in huge esteem by the Pools faithful who remember the swashbuckling style of his Pools team in his two years in charge, but he and Hodcroft are taking a big risk getting back together again.

There has always been mystery behind the reasons for his departure in April 2005, the club’s latest statement saying that he left “due to personal and family issues which he needed to address at the time.”

Make of that what you will, but it seemed clear at the time that the manager and the chairman had fallen out. Since then there has been a making-up and now it’s all in the past, as are his less-than-successful stints at Gillingham and Peterhead in the intervening years.

He says he has always held a soft spot for the club and the fans since he left, and the feeling has been more than mutual.

The risk is that while he will no doubt be given time to settle, if he doesn’t soon resume the winning ways he created in his first spell, the terrace doubts will start, and they can soon spread to the boardroom.

Cooper obviously believes he can succeed again, and presumably so does Hodcroft.

Starting at Sheffield United against a team run by another former Pools boss, Danny Wilson, in the last game of 2011, all he has to do is prove it.

MEANWHILE, it has been announced that former Pools striker Ken Johnson has died at the age of 80. He played for 15 years between 1949 and 1964, sociring more than 100 goals in mnore than 400 appearances, and was hugely popular during and after his Pools career.

He continued to follow the club into old age and will be missed by many who knew him.