2006 at Hartlepool part 1
By Eggy_Poolie
January 1 2007
2006 will be remembered as the year that Hartlepool was relegated from League One. It has certainly been a year of change with a new manager being brought to the club, new construction at the ground and a new challenge on the pitch as the club aims to move back into League 2
January
January started with a draw against Swindon but it was only one game in a run of 11 games without a win. January ended with a bittersweet sensation for the Pools fans. The last game against January was against Blackpool saw Hartlepool finally crash and burn. We crumbled against Blackpool going down 3-0, Gavin Strachan was to miss the next 2 months with a broken leg and Micky Barron was sent off. But despite this terrible afternoon Hartlepool fans would be cheering in the following week. After the Blackpool game their was an alleged scrap between Martin Scott and some of the Pools players. This resulted in Martin Scott finally losing his job – but was it too late to change Pools’ luck?
February
February was a month of change at the Vic. Martin Scott was out and Steve Agnew was close behind him. This resulted in Paul Stevenson becoming the first team coach on a temporary basis with Chris Turner being brought back to the club as a Director of Sports (whatever that means). Under Paul Stevenson performances and results picked up. In his first two games we got a draw against Rotherham and then ended our run of games without a win when we beat Chesterfield 1-0 on the 10th of February thanks to a late goal by Matty Robson. By the end of February Hartlepool had a real optimism of surviving relegation after an unbeaten month.
March
March couldn’t have started any better after the best night of the season happened. Huddersfield, chasing promotion, came to town expecting to walk over but someone didn’t read the script. Hartlepool put in their best performance of the season and won the game 3-1. The night also had the added bonus of the return of Joel Porter. After being out injured since the playoff final he came on and scored the third goal. The rest of the month was worth forgetting for Pools. They only managed to pick up 2 points from the remaining 4 games.
April
This was probably the most important month in the relegation battle. The month Started with a 1-1 draw away to fellow relegation battlers Swindon. The next three games saw Hartlepool lose to Colchester 2-0, Bristol City 2-1, and then MK Dons 2-1. Going into the Notts Forest game everything was on the line. Defeat and relegation was all but confirmed. Hartlepool beat all odds and won the game 3-2 with goals from Porter, Nelson and Proctor. The win kept the chance of survival alive going into the Brentford game. This time Hartlepool needed to get a point or we were down. The game finished 1-1 thanks to a late strike by Michael Nelson. Going into the last game of the season Hartlepool needed to beat Port Vale and MK Dons had to beat Rotherham.