DO panic - it's a real crisis for Pools now

As if the undeserved weekend defeat at home to Millwall wasn’t bad enough, midweek results have done Hartlepool no favours and they are now desperate for a win at Southend on Friday night. Corporal Jones is back, you have official permission to panic ... it most definitely IS a crisis now.

With seven League One games left, Pools are now just four points ahead of the bottom four, and all but two of the eight teams below them have at least one game in hand.
Hereford winning at Carlisle, Cheltenham drawing at home to Oldham, Crewe getting a late point at MK Dons and Swindon winning at Northampton were all bad results on Tuesday night, and that increased the pressure on Pools.
Two wins would possibly be enough to clinch safety, but the way things are going, that is not going to be easy. Look at the games Pools have left:

Southend (a) – one point would be brilliant, three a miracle
Hereford (h) – the most import game of the season, Pools MUST win
Crewe (a) – the second most important of the season, another they MUST win
Scunthorpe (h) – not an easy one, but they’ll need a win here probably
Yeovil (a) – the third six-pointer in the last seven, a result is vital
Leeds (h) – the last fixture you’d want at this stage of the season
Bristol Rovers (a) – please don’t say it will all depend on this 

Pools are capable of getting the results they need to survival, but they were capable of beating Millwall and didn’t.
That’s what has made this season so frustrating – most fans will agree that Pools are a better side, from a footballing point of view, than their current situation suggests.
But League tables don’t lie, and Pools are where they are because they have wasted winnable games (like Saturday’s), been crap away from home, and made too many defensive mistakes.
So while they are good enough to survive, they are not good enough to go into next season and whether they stay up or go down, a clear-out is needed.
And they could do with starting the job by deciding who is going to be manager.