By Albatross
January 27 2006

Hartlepool United go into Saturday's game with Blackpool at Victoria Park knowing that a win is a must if they're to stay out of the bottom four. Just our luck that Blackpool are in the middle of a mini-revival then.... To say this is a crucial game is something of an understatement; Blackpool are one the few sides still below us in the table and so this has acquired "must win" status. Just our luck then that we play them at the point where there are signs of a revival from the Bloomfield Road club.

Colin Hendry's departure earlier this season allowed Simon Grayson into the hotseat, and while improvement has hardly been spectacular they do at least now have a reasonable chance of avoiding the dreaded relegation. It's a far cry from the glory days of Matthews and Mortensen, and in fact those days are so long gone that relegation this season would see them return to the basement division for the fourth time since 1980.

Unsurprisingly for a side that's currently in the bottom half dozen, consistency has only been evident in terms of consistently poor. They have yet to go more than three league matches unbeaten, have only recorded consecutive wins once, and although they have scored a reasonable number of goals there defence has leaked 41 - even when they have scored three or more, the opposition has managed at least two in reply. Recent weeks have seen a marked improvement though - they've won as many as they've lost, with 11 points coming from their last eight games. Pools by comparison have just four from the same period. Last weekend's draw against the similarly relegation-threatened Bristol City was followed up in midweek by a fine 4-2 win over Doncaster. Away form though still has room for improvement with just one win in their last ten outings on the road - against Port Vale three games ago.

Leading scorer so far for Blackpool is Keigan Parker with eight goals; he will almost certainly be partnered up front by John Murphy, who is the next best with six. Grayson has resorted to the loan system to flesh out his squad, and the current list includes one or two names that may be familiar even if the faces aren't: Njazi "brother of Shefki" Kuqi, and sometime Pools loanee Lewis "I came, I saw, I got injured and went home again" Goburn. To the happy throng you can add Ian Morris (Leeds), Danny Warrender (Man City), Jason Wilcox (Leicester), Marc Joseph (Hull), Neil Wood (Man Utd) and Sean Taylor (Sunderland). With the transfer window shortly to close, Grayson seems to be doing his best to make sure there's plenty of cover.

There are unlikely to be many changes from the win over Doncaster, and confidence seems to be returning amongst the Tangerine fans that they can once again pull off an escape. They will come to Pools with no little hope having looked at our recent record.

Pools may be up against it, but there are one or two morsels of hope. Last weekend's performance against one of the top sides in the division was encouraging, as even without Butler we caused Swansea more than a few problems before finally grabbing the equaliser in stoppage time. In terms of team news, Butler is set to miss two months of the season while Llewellyn sits out the last game of his suspension; and although Boyd has suffered no ill effects from his 45 minutes for the reserves even putting him on the bench would be a risk at this stage that I don't think Scott will take. David Foley may well be in contention for a sub place though after netting an impressive hat-trick for the second string.

Can Pools end the 8 game winless run? I hope and think they can, although Blackpool are fighting for survival just as we are and won't exactly roll over and die. 2-1 to the Hartlepool then, with Pittman and Eifion to score - and to ease the pressure just a little.