Cooper - out?

By Charlie Summerbell
October 24 2012

There have been question marks Neale Cooper's future at Hartlepool United for weeks, but now the questrions have changed ... it's not so much whether he will go, but when.

He had said losing at bottom club Bury was not an option for his misfiring team, but it happened anyway, and now it’s surely just a matter of whether he jumps or is pushed.

He admitted after the game that he doesn’t know whether he will be in charge at Brentford on Saturday, but it’s clear that drastic action needs to be taken, and changing the manager appears to be the only option left.

Pools were two down as the game entered the last half-hour, but Ryan Noble narrowed the gap with a goal of outrageous quality that did not match the team’s display, and when Pools got a penalty seven minutes from time it looked like a draw would keep them off the bottom rung of the League One ladder.

But Neil Austin’s spot kick hit the bar, and Bury escaped.

Post-match comments fromThe Vic are thin on the ground at the moment, but the chances are that his days are numbered. DSilence at Pools usually means something is about to happen.

It would be a pity for him to go in some respects, as his first spell with Pools was a huge success in which he had the team playing some wonderful football and the crowd well on his side.

But this time round, it just hasn’t worked out. The old football saying is right ... never go back.

Cooper's close-season signings have been little short of a disaster, the team is playing badly and the prospects of them improving look remote.

When a team is in that sort of situation, the buck stops with the manager and his coaching staff, and chairman Ken Hodcroft knows that as well as anybody,.