By Albatross
January 28 2003

Hartlepool United have the best record in Div3 for January - even with a couple of games still to be played. Manager of the Month for Mike Newell then - but is the award really cursed? Albatross looks at the evidence. It's looking almost certain that Mike Newell is going to win the Manager of the Month award for January after a tremendous run for Pools that has seen us go through the month without losing a match. Traditionally though the winner of the award tends to have a very poor month afterwards. Has this been true in Division 3 this season?

The first winner this season was - controversially given Pools had a better record - Terry Dolan of York. Manager of the Month curse hit, and they dropped, winning just one of their five games during September. Currently they've climbed back up into the Playoff spots, but are in danger of not having a club next season.

Denis Smith of Wrexham was the next winner, as Wrexham climbed to within two points of Pools. A month later they had dropped eight places having failed to win a league game, and are now in the pack challenging for the Playoffs.

Another case of Pools missing out a little dubiously in October, with Ian Britton of Kidderminster taking the award by virtue of having a slightly better goal difference than us - the same situation hadn't prevented York picking up the award in August. Kiddy were by this point our closest challengers, some five points behind. They too got hit by the curse though, plummeting to 10th place in November and failing to win a game. Again, they are in the pack for the playoffs, currently 11th.

Brian Talbot won November's award as Rushden managed a 100% record during the month to close on Pools slightly. December did see them briefly get ahead of us, but five points from four games was hardly a great return for the Diamonds.

The final winner of 2002 was Ian Atkins of Oxford, who moved his side into the Promotion frame with third place at the end of the year. January hasn't been a great month for them so far, as they have won just once - though as that victory was on Saturday against Rushden they have continued to do Pools favours, and a win tonight over Kiddy could lift them up into third spot again.

Is there a curse? Does Manager of the Month really signal the start of a slide? I don't think it does. Looking at some of the winners - York and Kidderminster for example - you see teams that are decent without being exceptional. A combination of a good run and playing some lesser teams can be enough to see a team win the award. York played Swansea, Boston Shrewsbury, Scunny, Torquay and Macclesfield when they won the award; the following month saw them play Bury, Rushden, Darlo, Cambridge and Oxford. Wrexham won the award playing against Swansea, Exeter, Rushden, Darlo and Bury; then did less well when having to play Cambridge, Orient, Pools, Lincoln and York. In both cases you can argue that the month following the award for them has seen the more difficult set of fixtures.

Compare this to Pools good month. Cambridge started the run of five wins on the spin before New Year, the victims in January being Carlisle, Boston, Oxford and Macclesfield before the draw at Cambridge. Are you starting to see a pattern? With February having home games against Torquay, Exeter and Swansea, and a visit to York, it's a lot easier month than some teams have had after taking the award; all of those games look winnable, though the Torquay and York games may be a bit tricky.

You could argue of course that Mike Newell has fallen on his feet if he wins it: after all, he took over a side that had been top of the table for most of the season, with possibly one of the best Hartlepool squads ever assembled at the Vic. On the other hand, our defence seems to be meaner, and he's managed to get things back on track after the wobble in December; following the Hull defeat, who would have put money on us not only being back on top at the end of January, but a whole six points clear?

If he wins it that is. It may all be chance, but Pools should have had at least one and possibly two awards already this season; and with the FA Cup producing one or two notable performances from Division 3, what's the betting that the award will go to one of the giant-killers, rather than on league form? Instead of Rushden and Scunny, it may be Shrewsbury and Rochdale that are Newell's closest challengers for the award.

One thing is certain though - that at month's end, we can still sing "We are top of the League!"