CT - "unlucky"

By Charlie Summerbell
February 28 2010

Being unlucky and deserving more from a 1-0 defeat at Millwall is scant consolation for Hartlepool United’s latest away defeat – but for a dose of reality take a look at some of the other weekend results, and at the League One table. It doesn’t make good reading, and being unlucky at the Den suddenly becomes almost irrelevant. Pools remain three points ahead of the bottom four, and while five of the seven teams below Pools also lost, Brighton and Carlisle both won to give themselves some daylight.
Pools have a chance next weekend to do themselves a favour when Southend visit the Vic, but life doesn’t get easier after that with three away games on the trot – Yeovil, Tranmere and Southampton, March ending with a home game against Danny Wilson’s high-flying Swindon.
Fortunately, the Pools performance at Millwall gives them some hope as an unchanged team battled hard all the way and matched Millwall on level terms for much of the game. It was decided by an early free-kick, Neil Harris’s effort deflected by the wall into the net, but for much of the game it was the same old away story for Pools – hard work, chances created and chances lost.
Boss Chris Turner said he couldn’t fault the players for their effort, but we are at the stage now when effort alone isn’t enough.
Pools need results, and if they come via a last-minute own goals that goes into the net off somebody’s bum-cheek, then we’ll take it.
The time for earning praise for playing flowing attacking football is over – Pools need wins, and they need them quickly.
The midweek victory over Carlisle was a big boost and it’s fortunate for Pools that many of the team near them at the wrong end of the League One table are going through just as bad a time.
But memories of the end of last season, when relegation was avoided by the skin of the teeth, are too fresh an no matter who says Pools are too good to go down, that’s a load of old rubbish.
No team is too good to go down and Pools need to battle in every game now to avoid the big drop.