By Albatross
November 24 2004

Hartlepool United's tale of injury woe continued today when the club announced the Hugh Robertson - who has missed most of the season after needing an operation - has picked up a thigh strain while training with the youth team. "Just as you thought it was safe to go out of the treatment room....." Yes, Pools injury problems continue to rumble on, with the news that Hugh Robertson has a thigh strain and won't be back in training until after the weekend. It's the latest in a catalogue of problems for Neale Cooper this season that have robbed him of some of his key players over the first three months of the campaign.

Joining Robertson in the Physio's Room at the moment are Ben Clark (hamstring expected to keep him out for another 10 days or so), Eifion Williams (Groin Strain, but expected to be fit for Saturday) and Lewis Goburn (returned to Wolves for treatment on an ankle problem). Steven Istead has just about shaken off an injury, and Darrell Clarke has only just resumed full training - although according to the Official Site he still managed to put quite a few of the squad to shame in fitness tests this week!

The inability to play a settled side certainly hasn't helped Pools this season, and Cooper has missed some experienced first team players for spells pretty much all season. Barron, Robertson, Tinkler, Ross and Clarke have all had problems - and with the likes of Clark, John Brackstone and Jack Wilkinson also having suffered this season we have struggled to fill the bench with players with even limited first team experience. The likes of David Foley, Andy Appleby, Michael Maidens and Stephen Turnbull may all be showing promise, but Cooper is possibly having to throw them in earlier than he wanted to, and it's unreasonable to be expecting them to turn games for us at this stage in their careers. Indeed, no less than six of the players we've called on this year are still qualified to play for the Youth Team. While this is hardly a parallel with the Gibson Era, when a bunch of youth players including the likes of Denny Ingram and Tony Skedd were thrown into the first team, it does highlight the fact that we simply don't have the strength in depth of some other sides.

So what can Cooper do about it? He's tried the loan system, but part of the problem he faces is that it's not easy to bring someone in on loan that's considerably better than what we've already got, especially if he's looking for experienced players. Alan Pouton looked like he might fit the bill - but was then recalled by Gillingham, although depending on who the new boss is at Priestfield we might yet have a chance of getting him back. Betsy had an impact while he was here, but followed the money to Oldham where he hasn't set the division alight. If a player is good, and has experience, then the chances are he'll be in the first team rather than available for loan - it's something of a risk to take a chance that a player will hit form when we sign him, and we have plenty of promising youngsters of our own.

In terms of permanent signings we have seen Clark come in, and it's especially hard to take after his first few performances that we've got to do without him for a hopefully brief spell. Again though, finding the diamond we need to make things tick is getting increasingly harder - as you climb the league, the player you bring in has to have that much more quality to make a difference, and that costs.

It looks like the main thing Pools will have to do is sit tight and hope that the injury situation begins to clear. Once we're back to something like full strength we will then hopefully still have the time to make a charge up the table and still challenge for a playoff spot - in the meantime let's hope that Cooper will be able to come up with a winning (or even drawing) formula away from home.