Pools fans begin to worry with a month to go
Alan Power - new boy
By Clarence Rode
July 9 2008
Some Hartlepool United fans are beginning to worry about the team’s prospects for the new season ... and a ball hasn’t even been kicked yet. In fact, many were worried when last season ended in mid-table obscurity, and little has happened in the two months since then to raise their hopes.
Manager Danny Wilson has signed two new midfield players, but both Alan Power (Nottingham Forest) and Richie Jones (Manchester Utd) are unproven at League level.
And to make matters more worrying, both are central midfield players, and there is only scope in every team for so many of them.
Power and Jones will be competing for places in the middle of the midfield with Gary Liddle, Antony Sweeney, Willie Boland and Jamie McCunnie, while youngster Jonny Rowell will also be hoping to get a chance.
So, seven players competing for two places, but we don’t have a recognised full-back.
Sweeney (right) did well at right-back towards the end of last season, and of course Richie Humphreys operated on the left of the defence for most of the campaign.
But both are really midfield players and unless Wilson plans to radically change his playing system, he needs to make a couple of signings before the season starts on August 9, when Pools are at home to Colchester.
As well as full-backs, Pools could probably do with a striker and a wide man, but Wilson is – as usual – keeping his cards close to his chest and he has said that there’s no real panic just yet as clubs and players jockey for position in the weeks leading up to the big kick-off.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t make the club’s fans feel more optimistic about the prospects for 2008-09.
Meanwhile, the club has launched the new strip for the new season, reverting to a modern version of the one worn during the first season in 2008 to mark the centenary - white shirts with blue trim, blue shorts and white socks with blue trim.
In our humble opinion, it’s not as good as the old stripes, but if they play winning football, they can wear pink and white stripes for all we care.