Mick W - reality check

By Charlie Summerbell
February 13 2011

Hartlepool United were dumped back to earth with a crash as League One leaders Brighton took full revenge for their 3-1 defeat at Victoria Park earlier in the season by becoming the latest team to score four against Mick Wadsworth’s men – and the worrying thing is, the win was just as easy as it looks.

If there’s any consolation for them, they now face three home games on the trot that give them a chance to climb up the table.
Brighton were the better team from first to last and before the game was into its stride the only question was how many they would win by, Chris Wood and Glen Murray scoring within five minutes of each other to stamp the home team’s authority on the game.
There were two more quickfire goals in the second half as Craig Noone and another from Murray wrapped up as easy a win as Brighton will get all season.
Antony Sweeney did notch his 12^th of the season with an hour gone, but the game was over by then and there was never a realistic prospect of a comeback.
Wadsworth admitted Brighton were the “better team by far” and he told the club website: “We played very poorly defensively – if you stay in the game you might nick it 1-0, but it was poor play. I know that and the players do.
“We worked on things this week and we knew what we had to do, but we didn’t follow those instructions and gave away sloppy goals. But the reality is that while they took three points off us today, we took three off them earlier in the season and there aren’t many teams will do that this year.
“If you get something out of games like this then it’s a bonus really, because they are a very good side.”
The evidence of this game suggests that if Brighton are a very good side – and Wadsworth is right, they are – then Pools are only very average at best.
Three more teams which can be labelled good if the league table is to be believed are heading for the Vic now as Pools face three home games on the trot – Charlton on Tuesday night, MK Dons next Saturday and Southampton the following Tuesday.
With nine home points to play for in eight days, Pools have a chance to turn their mid-table position into something a lot better – but they’ll need to play better than Brighton allowed them to play on Saturday if they are to open up a safer gap than six points between them and the bottom four.