Brown - early goal

By Charlie Summerbell
October 18 2009

Now will the terrace critics leave Hartlepool United’s players and boss Chris Turner alone and let them got on with the job of turning a brand-new squad into a consistent winning team? A week after another home disappointment in the goalless draw with Brentford, Pools put on a great show to win 2-0 at Danny Wilson’s Swindon to demonstrate that they can do well this season. First-half goals from James Brown and Andy Monkhouse were enough to guide Pools to as easy an away win as they will ever get, ending Swindon’s 11-game unbeaten run in the process.
There has been a lot of criticism of Pools in the last few weeks, including calls for Turner to be sacked or to stand down as team boss, because while they have a very respectable away record, at the Vic they have not quite got things together yet.
But the criticism is both unfair and premature – Turner has built a new squad and he and the players deserve more time for things to gel.
Performances like the one at Swindon show what they are capable of doing, while results like the draw against Brentford show they are not the finished article yet.
Turner described the Swindon win as a fantastic performance, though he felt Pools should have won by more.
Richie Jones got special praise for his performance as he came back into the team, replacing Antony Sweeney in midfield, but it was the whole team that shone as Swindon were simply demolished.
Wilson admitted Swindon were second best in every respect, and that’s true as Pools showed what they can do.
The question is, how often will they do it?
After earning their first win of the month, Pools end October with a home game against Tranmere next weekend and a visit to Brighton a week later - both games they CAN win.