By Albatross
July 21 2003

This time last year Hartlepool United had won two consecutive fixtures 12-0 in a somewhat farcical tour that didn't really tell anyone much about the season ahead. However, this time round it looks like we got it right, with plenty of positives coming out of the two games and the training sessions. The opposition was, as promised, much tougher in Holland this year, and although we beat TOP Oss 6-0, Cooper will hopefully have learned a lot about his side from the 3-3 draw against Heerenveen. There have also been some encouraging signs, both on the playing front and the coaching front, coming out of the two games.

On the playing side, Eifion found the net three times against Oss, while Gabbiadini netted against Heerenveen and went close a couple of times the game before. Reports suggest that they are starting to develop an understanding, and also that Gabbiadini is much fitter than we'd maybe been lead to believe. Also, several of the younger players have been given a run out, with John Brackstone impressing and Matty Robson and Steven Istead also getting the chance to show their stuff. The only injury worry to come out of the tour is a sore groin for Ritchie Humphreys, but it sounds like only a minor concern. Compare this to last season, when Paul Smith picked up an injury and never looked the same player afterwards.

In terms of the coaching, Cooper has shown that he's prepared to show some flexibility. Pools started the game against Heerenveen playing 3-5-2, and reverted to 4-4-2 later in the game when Cooper felt that we would cope better against the Heerenveen attack with a flat back four. This willigness to try a different system - and to change systems during a game - was for me in stark contrast to our time under Mike Newell, who seemed to stick rigidly to 4-4-2 no matter what; almost the only exceptions being in the defeats at Rochdale and Scunthorpe. Martin Scott is also quoted on the Official Site as saying that we need to tidy things up somewhat at the back and not give the ball away so much; however he still says a number of positive things about the tour, in contrast to Kevin Sheedy who seemed to have very little in the way of positive comments when he was running the reserves last season.

As the pre-season starts to kick into gear there are still a number of players looking for new deals, and Pools do need to look to flesh out the squad a little - the Official Site currently lists both Jon Bass and Kevin Henderson as the No. 12, but currently there are just 21 players with squad numbers, and of those three (Robson, Brackstone and Istead) are not yet professional while another (Provett) has made just one senior appearance for the club. A goalkeeper would be high on my shopping list, together with another central defender (for cover at least) and a right sided midfielder.

Next up for the Seniors is Saturday's game with Sheffield Wednesday, but in the meantime the Youth Team is also busy. After a 3-1 defeat to York College on Friday, they were playing a side from Dallas this morning (Monday) before taking part in the Sage International Soccer Festival from Wednesday until Friday. If you want to see the youngsters in action, head to the Houghnall Community College in Durham.