Nobby S - big influence

By Charlie Summerbell
September 21 2011

Hartlepool United's unbeaten run in League One is bound to end sooner or later, but the longer it goes on the more confidence the squad will have for the rest of the season and the stronger they will be when the chips are down later in the campaign.

They go to Bournemouth on Saturday with a new club record already under their belts, and Mick Wadsworth is delighted that as the squad returns to full fitness, he is facing selection problems in every game.

Evan Horwood is close to recovering from his thigh injury, while James Brown’s absence from last weekend’s squad was down to illness rather than injury.

Having won their last four games, Pools will make the long journey to the South Coast as favourites , but Wadsworth is well aware that there is always a lurking danger of complacency no matter how professionally the team goes into a game.

Bournemouth don’t appear to be the team they were last season, but they have shown recent signs of recovering from a bad start to the season and Pools will have to be at their best to do as well as they did last season at Dean Court, or whatever they are calling their ground this season.

If they get a result, Pools will have gone through the first two months of the season – no mean achievement for the side the bookies and many opposition fans will have written off before a ball was kicked.

Wadsworth told the Northern Echo: “You look at the players not in the squad and it's a great situation.

"You've got players fighting to get in the squad, so it's happy days."

Wadsworth is particularly pleased with the way Colin Nish has made an impact as the team’s target man, especially after his two goals in last weekend’s coasting win over Bury.

He said: "Colin's made our team and the squad better, from the minute he came to the club.

"As has Nobby Solano, Nathan Luscombe, James Poole and Stephen Wright.”

But the major bonus is the way the players, old and new, have knitted together into a squad.

Long may it continue.