By Albatross
January 31 2005

Not as bad as it could have been, but not as good either: the winner of the replay between Hartlepool United and Brentford will travel to Southampton in the 5th Round. Both sides would no doubt have preferred a home tie, or one of the giants - but it's not to be..... Whichever one of Pools or Brentford gets through will be the lowest-ranked team left in the competition; depending on the result of the replay between Fulham and Derby, the makeup of the last sixteen will be eleven or twelve Premiership teams, five or four Division 1, and either HUFC or Brentford as the sole representatives of the lower divisions. As such the game may be attractive to those planning the TV Schedules - although I won't be holding my breath with the likes of Newcastle v Chelsea almost certain to be chosen.

One thing that may throw a spanner in the works on that front is the replay date. The fact that the replay is having to take place on 12th February due to the Internationals in midweek (Bees midfielder Jay Tabb is part of the Irish u21 squad) means that there's just one week between the replay and the next round; not only does it make a televised game unlikely, but whoever gets through will not have much time to organise tickets and transport. It could have been worse though - a home tie against Man Utd would have given either club a logistical nightmare with slightly less than seven days notice to prepare.

Fixture congestion is also a concern. Pools currently have two games in hand on a number of teams; that will stretch to three with the forced postponement of the home game with Peterborough, and although we are due to catch one up against Luton the following week a fifth round tie would again leave us with three games in hand on some clubs. Whether that is positive or negative depends on the results of the teams around us; should we still be in the top six with games to play, we might be in a position not just to cement a playoff place but to try and get higher; need to win a couple of those games to get back into the race however and the pressure starts to mount.

For the moment though most of the talk will not be of catching up games but of a potential tie with the Saints. That will go for Brentford too of course - they will feel that with a chance to get some of their injured players back in action, they will be able to field a stronger sqaud at Victoria Park.

So can Pools make it to Round 5 at last? That's the question that we are still waiting for an answer to; but with a replay at home to a side in the same division, we have surely never had a better chance.