By Albatross
March 17 2004

Hartlepool United seem to be getting a fair bit of stick after last night's draw with Stockport failed to do much to erase the memories of Saturday's poor result against QPR. It's time though to get things into perspective. Most seem to agree that last night saw two points dropped rather than one gained, with even Neale Cooper agreeing with that analysis in his post-match comments. The wind may have made life difficult, but even so Pools once again suffered from their profligacy in front of goal - we had 19 goal attempts, and scored just twice, in what is becoming a depressingly familiar pattern of failing to make the most of our opportunities.

It's not easy to criticise the current front partnership though. Eifion Williams has been scoring consistently since December - ten goals in 17 games - and Porter has now scored in his last two starts. Yes they may have missed some opportunities, but so does every striker; that's not to say there isn't room for improvement, but getting someone in that could do better isn't easy. For all the talk of the money from the cup run, we would be talking about investing a substantial sum in a high risk strategy - at a time when the club has continued to trade at a loss on a week to week basis. Players such as Lee Trundle are simply not available at a price that Pools can afford - witness the seven-figure deal that took Jon Stead from Huddersfield to Blackburn. And Sheffield Wednesday can vouch that signing strikers from the reserves of higher division clubs is not all it's cracked up to be - Adam Proudlock has hardly been an unqualified success despite them paying Wolves well in excess of £100K for his services, scoring just three times in the league.

There were other issues raised from last night’s game as well. Mickey Barron's late illness problems left us with a gap at right back that Cooper was forced to plug initially by changing to 3-5-2, and then by moving Chris Westwood across when he reverted to a back four. With John Bass having left the club, it's a position we've not got much cover for; interestingly, it's a role than Darren Craddock is being asked to fill in today's reserve game and if Barron is out of action for a few days and Craddock impresses, then the youngster could find himself there for the first team on Saturday.

Midfield also provided Cooper with another headache, most notably with the enforced substitution of Mark Tinkler. Tinks apparently stands a good chance of being fit for the weekend, and he's likely to be badly needed against a Grimsby side that will be looking for revenge after their hammering in September.

Possibly the biggest story to come out of the game though was the reaction of some fans to the substitution of Richie Humphreys. Most people seem to agree that he wasn't having a great game, but for the man who less than twelve months ago seemed to have reached legendary status with Pools fans to be substituted to cheers and trudge dejectedly off down the tunnel is one heck of a turnaround - and one that both Cooper and Scott have commented on in the aftermath to the game on Pools World. While there's no doubt that Humphreys has struggled to make the sort of impact this season as last, the management team believe he's contributing enough to the side that he's started every match for us this year. A current position of eighth suggests they must know what they are about....

In fact, possibly the main thing to have come out of the last couple of results is that we're getting a reality check. This season has gone far, far better than anyone had a right to expect when it started; Chris Kamara was not the only pundit to predict we'd struggle to avoid relegation, and by still being in a position to challenge for a playoff place in the middle of March we are overachieving on a grand scale. We have the 3rd best away record in the division, and no side has scored more than us on their travels; and while our home record hasn't been as good as the last two or three seasons, we had no real right to expect it to be after moving up a division. Even so, we have only lost three home games.

Meanwhile, Cooper has been doing his best to remodel the squad as he goes along. We have made six permanent signings since the first game of the season, had three more players in on loan - and of those nine, four started last night. No less than half of last night's sixteen players are either new this season, or have only made their league debuts for Pools this year. A number of players have been allowed to leave, and Pools are continually linked with others.

To be consistently in the top ten despite really being in a season of team building is no mean feat. We look set to finish in our highest league position since the reorganisation of the lower divisions at the end of the 1950s; let's enjoy the ride a bit and not read too much into the occasional bumps.