By Albatross
January 21 2004

Adam Boyd has returned to Hartlepool United after his loan spell at Boston United. The Lincolnshire club would it seems like to keep him, Martin Scott says he's staying put - but is this to be one last chance for the young striker to salvage his Pools career? Boyd returns to Pools after two months on loan - during which time he's scored three goals in ten appearances - and also picked up three bookings. The general opinion on him at Boston is that he's done well for them and they'd love to see him back at York Street on a permanent basis - and Manager Neil Thompson seems to agree, indicating that he'd like to sign him - either extending his loan further, or making his move permanent.

Reports on whether this is likely to happen vary. The word coming out of Pools is that they have no intention of letting Adam leave - although there is a getout there in that the words Martin Scott uses on the Official Site are that he's with us "for the foreseeable future" according to the article there yesterday afternoon (20/1).

Down in Lincolnshire though there's a different story emerging. Yesterday's Lincolnshire Echo reported an exclusive, with a source apparently close to Pools claiming that Boyd has been told he has no future at the club, and will be allowed to leave on a free transfer in a similar way to Marcus Richardson. However with the facts reported in the article being not entirely accurate - it claims Boyd is under contract until the end of the season when in fact he still has 18 months on his current deal - this has to be regarded at the moment as speculation.

There's no doubt the Boston fans would like to see him back. They like his skill and pace, and it seems his work-rate has been pretty good too - and when Thompson substituted him during the weekend defeat against Huddersfield (he claimed Boyd wasn't having a good game) it was met with a chorus of boos. It seems that offered the choice between one of Boyd and Thompson staying, the fans would be quite happy to wave goodbye to their manager!

Boyd though looks as if he's going to have at least one more chance at Pools before he's allowed to leave. When he went on loan, we had Gabbiadini, Richardson and Easter as part of the squad; now, one has retired, one has left permanently, and the other is out on loan (although Easter didn't feature for Spennymoor at the weekend....) With Robinson's illness we were without a forward on the bench against Tranmere, and should he fail to shake off his problems then it's entirely possible that Boyd will find himself on the bench against Bristol City on Saturday.

Of our other loan rangers, Arnison remains a regular in the Carlisle side as he approaches the end of his third month at Brunton Park; Easter didn't play on Saturday but Mark Robinson did as Spennymoor lost again to Droylesden - they continue to slide down the Unibond Premier after failing to win since November; and Darren Craddock and Andrew Appleby have yet to make their debuts for Whitby after their game against Runcorn FC Halton was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. Tonight (21/1) sees Whitby at York in the North Riding Senior Cup, though it remains to be seen whether either or both with make the starting eleven.