By Albatross
September 20 2004

Hartlepool United had a good win on Saturday, but there were some negatives. More injury concerns, and some strong views from Ken Hodcroft in his Chairman's Column, have got a few people talking. Are we on the Road to Nowhere, or is it that some Poolies are shouting "Stop making sense" to the board? A 4-1 win, back into Playoff contention, and Cooper looking for new signings - surely everything in the garden is rosy? Sadly, this is Hartlepool United and so there are still one or two flies in the ointment.

First of all there's the injury situation. Eifion Williams and Mickey Barron were both on the bench on Saturday - although only Williams came on - but Westwood missed out, Boyd had been a doubt, and Robson limped off late in the game and may be a doubt for tomorrow's cup tie. We are still missing some important players in key positions, and Cooper is being forced to shuffle his pack constantly to plug the gaps - Saturday seeing Richie Humphreys playing first of all on the right of midfield before filling in at Left Back being a prime example.

Then, there's the financial situation and the criticism in some quarters of IOR. Ken Hodcroft's programme notes indicated that he's far from happy with the role the Hartlepool Mail has played in some of this, and while I wouldn't go as far as saying that he's made a veiled threat, it's clear that if there is strong feeling against IOR from large sections of the crowd then they will consider their options for stepping back from the club.

I have to say that I do feel for Mr. Hodcroft at the moment. IOR have been running the club for a number of years, and no-one can deny that over those years we have progressed on and off the pitch. IOR have carried on the work of Harold Hornsey and made the club run much more professionally and much more as a business as opposed to the hand to mouth existence and frquent winding-up orders that seems to have been the case for much of the last 30 or more years. That's not to say there's no room for improvement - inevitably there will always be some things that attract criticism - but compared to the days of Vince Barker, John Smart and Garry Gibson, where the criticism of the board was frequently to do with threats to the continued existence of the club, we have moved on one heck of a lot.

Meanwhile, on the pitch we have gone from perennial strugglers scratching around to avoid relegation to the Conference to a side that in five seasons has reached the playoffs four times and achieved automatic promotion the other. And even with all the injuries we've experienced, we are still battling at the right end of the table at the moment.

Some may argue that it's all very well looking back, but that we should be looking forward. However, I take the view that the history of the club should play a big part in helping us realise what a reasonable aim should be. Historically, we have never been more than a team scrapping around in the lower divisions, with occasional bits of success that have lead to a total of three promotions and a high water mark (arguably) of 2nd in Div3 North in the mid 1950s. We are at the start of only our sixth season outside the lowest league level since joining the league in 1921. Arguably, we are therefore overachieving just to be at this level, never mind competing at the right end of it!

That doesn't mean we should just sit back and enjoy just being in Division 2, but it should temper our expectations. We have never been a big club, and the gap between big and small is now larger than ever. Trying to bridge that gap would require a huge amount of resource - just ask Dave Whelan how much he's spent to take Wigan Athletic to where they are now, bearing in mind that he built the biggest sport retailer in the country and is probably almost as loaded as Jack Walker was. Can we seriously expect IOR to put tens of millions into Hartlepool United with no guarantee of success? I don't think so.

What I think is realistic is to look at where certain other clubs are - notably Crewe. I remember giving Paul Mullen a report on our 8-0 Auto Windscreens hammering for Monkey Bizz, and him asking if there was anything positive at all to say; my reply was only that we should be trying to do what they had done. The same still applies as far as I am concerned. Crewe were once bracketed with Pools as "Perennial Strugglers" - a team that I think we have still played in the league more than any other, and who were in the basement division as recently as 1992-3. Under Dario Gradi they have built a reputation not as a team where old players and misfits go as a last resort, but as a team that can develop players, bring them on, and help them reach the highest levels of the game. They are a respectable team at the lower end of Division 1 or higher end of Division 2 - and if we can emulate them, and other teams like Rotherham and Walsall, I will be a very happy Poolie.

So where are we now? Well, we're bringing young players through, and are improving our reputation; and another playoff season isn't out of the question. I'd say that IOR are doing pretty well by us. Yes it would be nice to go out and splash the cash to bring some top quality players into the club - but how many clubs in recent times have done that only for it to end in tears? Anyone considering singing "Where's the Cheque book IOR" might be better off going into Middleton Grange on a lunchtime and chanting "Where were you on Saturday" as for the last three home games there have been an average of under 4500 home fans - despite us being yet to lose at Victoria Park this season. It's ridiculous to expect IOR, who are after all a business not a charity, to commit to signing two or three players on £2000 a week or more when the response of those in the town to five seasons of consistent success at the top end of the table is to shrug their shoulders and claim to be a Sunderland fan, Man Utd fan, Newcastle fan or anything other than a Pools fan. We seem to be making some progress in improving the core support - but until we can boast of an average of 6000, demands for stadium development and a bigger, more highly paid squad will not hold much water.

The other point is, who else is going to run the club if IOR are not the answer? The late Harold Hornsey was rightly lauded for all he did for us - but even his resources would be hard pressed to sustain a club in our league now. Anyone coming in would have to not just be of multi-millionaire status, but be someone happy to invest more than a million pounds most years to sustain where we are now, never mind move us on. Such people are thin on the ground anywhere, never mind Hartlepool - so unless Meat Loaf suddenly decides to take an active interest, or JK Rowling turns out to be a Poolie, I'm happy to stick with Ken Hodcroft and IOR.