By Albatross
October 1 2004

With Division 2 starting to take some sort of shape in September, Pools found themselves struggling for form and missing out on opportunities to take points when we really should have. Albatross has a look around Division 2. The Manager of the Month award has been handed to Brentford's Martin Allen after an undefeated month in the League that's seen the Bees take ten points from four games. Mike Newell may be feeling a little hard done by at not receiving the award for a second month running though - Luton matched Brentford's total, and had a marginally better goal difference to boot - but as Poolies discovered a couple of seasons ago, the ways of the committee that decides the award are not easy to fathom and it's entirely possible that they decided someone else should be given a go.

Luton's lead at the top of the table is now at nine points, and at the moment no-one is putting enough form together to even keep them in sight; Mick Harford must be so proud. Behind them the table is pretty tight though, with three teams on 19 points and sides as far down as Port Vale in 16th only three points away from a playoff place. Meanwhile, the big shock at the bottom of the table is that Milton Keynes Dons are (just) ahead of the relegation places following Pools capitulation last weekend; however three teams are in danger of being cut adrift. Stockport, Torquay and Blackpool are all still in single figures for the season, and are five or more points away from the relative safety of 20th place; improvement needs to be quick if they are to avoid an extended relegation battle. Blackpool (who have a game in hand) and Torquay did at least pick up wins this month though; the Hatters have been atrocious though, with just one point and one goal from four games and ten goals conceded to have the worst record of any team in September. Only slightly better were Walsall, who also picked up a solitary point; unsurprisingly, Paul Merson is starting to find himself under pressure as they dropped nine places over the month.

Pools return of four points from four games was highly disappointing given we could and possibly should have looked to be getting a double figure return. Injuries may have played their part, especially in the makeshift lineup that faced Oldham; but other than a comfortable win over Torquay, we have struggled to show the sort of consistency that took us into the playoffs. The defence has come under pressure and made errors that have cost us: nine goals in four league games should have been enough for at least another win, but our defence has conceded the same number.

We now face a series of tricky games in October that will test the character of the team to the limits. Our next four league fixtures see us take on Hull (3rd), Luton (1st), Chesterfield (5th), and Brentford (4th) - we could hardly expect a tougher set of fixtures. At the moment we're in mid-table - but with things being generally pretty tight we could easily find ourselves dropping a number of places - and that's when we will really regret not taking points from the likes of Franchise and Oldham.