By Albatross
October 31 2003

Hartlepool United travel to Meadow Lane to take on Notts County - another one of the financially troubled clubs in Division 2. County have just given the wealthy Chelsea a bit of a scare in the Carling Cup - but will it be Pools three points richer come Saturday Evening? Notts County have been struggling financially for some time, and although apparently saved at the start of the season their money woes are still not behind them. The original takeover deal seems to have collapsed, and their future remains precarious. This has had an impact on the pitch, with manager Billy Dearden severely restricted in terms of bringing players in.

The wolf has been kept a little further from the door though thanks to Wednesday's Carling Cup tie at Chelsea. A 4-2 defeat in which the Magpies gained much credit was watched by 36,000, and the coffers at Meadow Lane have received a welcome boost to the tune of 300K - not enough to solve their problems by any means, but vital nonetheless.

It may be a bit of a case of "after the Lord Mayor's Show" for County: 3000 made the trip to Stamford Bridge, and the players responded by giving a fairly strong Chelsea side including the likes of Hasselbaink and Veron a real run for their money - apparently a bit better finishing from the Magpies could have given them real hope of an upset. Whether the players will be able to lift themselves for the bread and butter of the league remains to be seen, but that's precisely what they desperately need to do.

Already, Notts find themselves struggling at the wrong end of Division 2. 22nd place and 13 points from 16 games is not an irretrievable situation, but unless they can find some form it's going to be a long hard struggle this season.

The season got off to a particularly bad start, with four straight league defeats and not a single goal scored; their first goal and point came in their fifth game, but it wasn't until the visit to Chesterfield in the middle of September that they recorded their first three points of the season. There were another four games with just one point to show for it before they next tasted victory, this time over Colchester, but then another three games without a victory followed that. Last weekend saw them record a win - 2-0 at home to Brentford - but they are finding goals fairly hard to come by and have been conceding far too many. Already their goal difference stands at -12, level with Chesterfield as the worst in the division.

All this makes their form in the Carling Cup even more baffling. On the way to Stamford Bridge, Notts County overcame higher division opposition twice, first of all getting past Preston thanks to a penalty shootout, and then defeating Ipswich 2-1. Dearden will be looking to translate that cup form into league points, but he's not been too successful so far....

County have been allowed to sign four players on monthly contracts, and all four have been regulars so far. Steve Jenkins (defender) and Simon Baldry (midfield) should start against Pools, as should another couple of more familiar names. Sometime Poolie (and Billingham-born) Tony Barrass has arrived from Walsall and made a considerable impact, while up front we will see the familiar face of former Rochdale player Clive Platt - someone that may not have the best goal-scoring record, but always seemed to cause us problems when we played against Dale in recent seasons.

Platt has scored three times so far this season, and will probably be up front with the Magpies leading scorer; Mark Stallard has netted six times (four in the league). Meanwhile, in midfield Paul Heffernan has scored three goals and former Spurs and Reading player Darren Caskey two. Caskey is the player most likely to be trying to run the show in the middle; although he hasn't always performed for the Meadow Lane club, recently he's shown better form - possibly as his contract expires at the end of the season!

Meetings between the two sides have not been frequent, and this will in fact be our first league meeting outside the bottom division. The last time we played was just after Christmas 1997, and shows how much times have changed.... County had been relegated the previous season, and were on their way to winning the championship with a goal difference of +39, while Pools were firmly in the Tait era and on their way to a share of the all-time record for most draws in a season. Sean Farrell scored twice that day to send a big away following back pointless against a side that included two future Poolies in Gary Strodder and Gary Jones.

For Pools, this is our third game on the trot against teams in the relegation slots, and we need to redeem ourselves somewhat. After a win against Chesterfield we looked to have recovered from defeat against Blackpool, but a poor performance against Wycombe where only Jim Provett's heroics prevented us from slipping to defeat means that we can't honestly say we've got back on track. A victory at Meadow Lane may help on that front, but possibly more important is the way Pools play after not hitting top gear for several matches.

Cooper's selection problems are less to do with injuries and more to do with lack of form. Provett is a nailed-on certainty to start in goal, but beyond that there's been few that have covered themselves in glory recently. Having said that, it's hard to see the back line changing unless Cooper decides to move systems. If he does decide to play with wingbacks, he has the choice of moving Tinkler back into defence, or bringing Barron into the centre. All this does though is highlight the problems we have on the flanks: on the left side, we've so far tried Robson, Jordan, Robinson, Humphreys and now Brackstone, and none have consistently impressed - I'd make Brackstone favourite to start - while on the right, Barron seems to be getting found out for pace at full-back, Clarke is impressing less and less on the wing, and Cooper has even resorted to playing Eifion Williams as a wingback on occasion. With Arnison going on loan to Carlisle, our options on that side seem even more limited.

Meanwhile, Ritchie has looked severely out of sorts, and up front we almost seem to have too many options - and no real sign of who is in form. For my two penn'orth, I'd like to see us play 3-5-2 at Meadow Lane, with Tinkler dropping into defence, Barron staying on the right and Brackstone (or possibly Robson) on the left, a midfield trio of Humphreys, Strachan and McCann, and Richardson and Robinson up front.

Whatever lineup we put out, Pools should have too much for the Magpies - but we shouldn't underestimate their fighting spirit. We were outfought by Brentford, and County are in a similar position. My prediction then is Pools to win 2-1, thanks to goals from Nelson and Robinson, but that it won't be pretty.