By Albatross
April 30 2004

Hartlepool United take on Champions Plymouth knowing that a win in front of a huge crowd will be enough to make sure of a playoff place. No doubt though there will be some talk of another game between the two sides that happened the last time we were in Division 2. When Plymouth come up to Pools, the fixture that sticks in the memory of most is the game that took place almost ten years ago; a promotion-chasing Argyle needed a big win to have any chance of an automatic slot, Pools were already down, and sure enough the Greens ran riot. In what was described in Monkey Business's "Exiles Diary" as a Nine Goal Thriller, Pools managed just one (courtesy of Nicky Peverell of all people) to end our stay in Division 2 on an exceptionally low note in a season that had been full of them.

Ten years on though, and it's a very different situtation. Plymouth have already won the title, Pools need a win to be sure of playoff action - and in five meetings at the Vic since that day, Pools have won three and not been beaten, including defeating their all-conquering Division 3 Title-winning side. Plymouth are expecting us to provide them with a tough encounter, and that's precisely what we will be aiming to do.

In some ways Pools could hardly be playing Argyle at a better time. Five wins on the spin and a fully-fit squad is the order of the day for Pools - while Argyle not only have nothing much beyond pride to play for, but a new manager who is muttering about making changes to get a look at some of his fringe players. Their recent form also gives Pools cause for hope - away from home, you have to go back to the end of February to find their last win and they've lost their last three at Barnsley, Bristol City and Oldham. Despite this, their away record is still second only to ours, and they've scored a very healthy 30 times away from Home Park.

In a broadly similar way to Pools, the goals have been shared round a bit this season with no-one getting more than 14 - who says you need a 20 goal striker to get out of this division? French midfielder David Friio tops the list, all but one of his 14 in the league, and Mickey Evans has scored 12 league goals in his 14; Marino Keith has reached double figures, and Nathan Lowndes and Paul Wotton have both hit nine. No less than eight players have scored more than five this season.

What sort of team Plymouth will put out is open to debate. Wotton is suspended, and Evans may well be rested; and having been on international duty with Northern Ireland in midweek, Tony Capaldi may also be given a break. When you consider though that Lowndes - who scored against us earlier in the season - is one of the so-called fringe players that may get a run out, this is hardly going to be a walkover for Pools. With Williamson new to the job, there's simply no telling how Plymouth will line up or play.

On the Pools front, Neale Cooper is faced with some unenviable choices to make. With five wins on the bounce it's easy to say "if it ain't broke don't fix it" - but with two of our most influential players in Nelson and Strachan champing at the bit on the bench, and skipper Mickey Barron also wanting to reclaim his place we've got a multitude of options in midfield and defence - and Paul Robinson's four goals for the reserves in midweek means he will be hoping to get into contention for the bench as well.

While what happens at the Vic is of course what matters most to Pools, we'll be keeping an ear out for a few other scores as well. Port Vale are at home to Tranmere Rovers - anything other than a home win would guarantee us a playoff spot no matter what the score in our game; Brighton are at home to Notts County; and QPR are at home to Swindon. Sunday will see Bristol City travel to Barnsley. Three points for Pools could move us to within touching distance of third place - but arguably it might be better if we were still in fourth place come 5pm. If Swindon beat QPR, we could yet be going into the final game of the season with an outside chance of automatic promotion - and wouldn't that be an even more remarkable achievement.

Predicting the result of this game is akin to juggling wet fish - there's so many ways things could go that it's almost not worth the effort. Nevertheless, I'm going for Pools to scrape a 2-1 win thanks to Boyd and Humphreys, with other results meaning that we're playing for third place at best. Let's hope that we're all going to be pencilling playoff dates into our diary once again this weekend.