By Albatross
December 11 2003

Hartlepool United have confirmed that Left-Back Mark Robinson is going out on loan - to non-league Spennymoor United. It's a path a couple of our goalkeepers have taken in the past - but it's looking more like the beginning of the end for Robbo. While there have been rumours for a couple of days, it's still a bit of a surprising move for Robinson. While he hasn't appeared for the first team since the debacle at Blackpool - where he was replaced at half time by John Brackstone - he's dropping some distance. Spennymoor are currently 8th in the Unibond Premier, so Robbo is dropping no less than three divisions and into the realms of part time football.

While he's not the first Pools player this season to head to the Moors, his situation is very different to that of Kevin Duncan. Duncan is a young lad, still eligable to play for the youth team, who went out on loan to gain some first team experience that would toughen him up - something that Jim Provett did at a similar stage of his career. Robinson though is 22 and has made 85 starts and 5 sub appearances for Pools first team - and has been a regular for most of the previous two seasons.

He's never managed to endear himself to many of the fans however, and although his commitment hasn't been in doubt a lot of Poolies were concerned about how well he might make the step up to Division 2 given that he hadn't looked exceptional in the Third. The fact that Neale Cooper was willing to try both Andrew Jordan and Matty Robson ahead of him didn't bode well, and with Brackstone's promotion to the first team he now finds himself third choice at best.

There are a number of Poolie connections with Spennymoor, and lining up alongside Robinson will be a couple of ex-Poolies of note. Stuart Brightwell may well be lining up at right wing-back and is a regular, while Jon Cullen has recently joined up with Tony Lee and scored seven goals already. Meanwhile another former Poolie, Chris Lynch, has departed.

Robinson joins a growing list of Poolies out on loan, who are experiencing mixed fortunes. Paul Arnison is now in his second month at Carlisle and is a regular for the first team, while Adam Boyd has been impressive at Boston and Lincoln are delighted to have Marcus Richardson back. Anthony Williams however hasn't got beyond warming the bench at Swansea, and is having to be content with acting as cover for the veteran Roger Freestone.