SAFETY - Pools can relax early for a change

Eighth top in League One and virtually safe from the danger of sinking into the relegation quicksands, Hartlepool United and their fans can breathe a sigh of relief a lot earlier than they have in one or two recent seasons and perhaps even set their sights on closing the gap between themselves and the play-offs.

Mick Wadsworth reckons 50 points is spot on to ensure safety, and Pools certainly look clear of trouble 14 points ahead of fourth bottom Walsall. Not bad for a team made one of the favourites for the drop at the start of the season.
The team directly above them, Leyton Orient, are at the Vic on Tuesday night, when Pools have the chance to close their three-point lead.
But sixth-top MK Dons are 11 points clear at the foot of the play-off zone, so it’s a tall order for Wadsworth’s men to close that gap in the final ten games of a season when inconsistency has been a major problem.
Against crisis club Plymouth it was the professional, capable Pools who carved out a good 2-0 win against a team which has defied the off-pitch problems with a good run of form lately.
Pools defended well when they had to and scored two well-worked goals for the win.
Wadsworth said there was a positive buzz in the dressing room before the game and told the club website: “The boys have done really well. We were solid and did the fundamentals well.
“Plymouth are plying with freedom and that makes today’s victory a very good one for us.
“If had offered us 50 points in mid-March at the start of the season, we’d have though we had won the lottery.
“Everyone had us to go down, but the players have worked hard and bought in to what we are trying to do.”
Pools went in front on 20 minutes when on-loan Ryan Donaldson beat his man and slid a perfect ball into the path of top scorer Antony Sweeney, who helped himself to his 13^th of the season from close in.
He had done well to ply at all after a bad injury saw him carried off at Carlisle on Tuesday night, and he need stitches after this game, too, after another bad knock on the same ankle late on.
The clincher came on 64 minutes when Peter Hartley helped Leon McSweeney’s free-kick back across goal for Sam Collins to bundle a close-range goal.
The sight of Sweeney being stretchered off again was not a good one for Pools, and having done well to make the starting line-up against Plymouth, he could be out against Orient, and he'll be missed.