By Albatross
August 8 2005

While it's not yet time for doom and gloom, there's no doubt that Hartlepool United failed to perform up to our expectations on Saturday. What went wrong? And how will Scotty put it right? He needs to move quickly though: our next match is tomorrow night....

There's a definate feel of "After the Lord Mayor's Show" at the moment: our first competitive match since the Playoff Final had been eagerly anticipated, and to end up losing 2-0 against a side that last season did little more than hang around in mid-table is an anticlimax.

Almost as disappointing was the attendance: allowing for the turnout from Bradford, there were less than 5400 Hartlepool fans there. Overall the attendance rose from last season's opening fixture against the same oppenents by less than 250: how many did we take to Cardiff again? It's hard to see what some in the town want the club to do: six seasons of being in the playoffs or better, reaching a big final for the first time, and a summer of only losing one player and gaining several others that have higher-level experience should be more than enough to persuade anyone that we are in Hartlepool United's Golden Age.

Back to the match itself though - what happened? Martin Scott refused to question the players effort but commented that maybe they'd been a bit naive. My perception from the Pools World coverage - backed up by match reports and comments on the message boards - is that where we lost out was in midfield. Sweeney and Bullock didn't combine too well, and that put pressure on defence and attack.

If anything, I'm incined to say that it was less about the individuals than about the balance of the team. When we played with a midfield trio of Llewellyn, Bullock and Sweeney against Middlesbrough, I commented that the onus would be on them to help out defensively as well as push forward; it looks a lot like we lacked the control in midfield to win possession and protect the defence against Bradford.

If that is the issue, then the problem facing Scott is how to address it while keeping people happy. Strachan - or Tinkler once he's fit - are the obvious choices to come in and play in a holding role, but that means that either one of Sweeney and Bullock misses out, or we re-jig the system to play with three central midfielders. But if we do that, where will the likes of Llewellyn and Butler play?

One defeat isn't of course a disaster, but we need to avoid letting it turn into a sequence of losses. With tricky away games coming up this week against Bournemouth and then Doncaster, Scott will need to pick his players up quickly to stop that happening.