Cooper reads Pools riot act

For the second time in a season which has only just started, Hartlepool United have been humiliated 5-0 in an away game. And, also for the second time, the result and the performance have left manager Neale Cooper hopping mad.

He had been hoping that the League Cup hammering at Crewe could be put down as “one of those games” and that it wouldn’t happen again – the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth last weekend probably went some way to strengthening that theory.

But his players have done again, this time in as League One game at Preston. It was difficult to believe that only three days earlier they almost won at Bournemouth.

They started quite well, but once they leaked two goals in a couple of minutes, they collapsed and surrendered.

“I'm really hurt, really hurt,” Cooper told the Northern Echo.

“That kind of result costs a manager his job and not one of those players can moan at me if they aren't playing at the weekend. I've looked after these boys and I'm not accepting that from experienced boys.”

Cooper revealed that he had ordered the squad in at 9-0 on Wednesday morning to watch a horror video – the Deepdale match.

“They are normally off on a Wednesday, but they don't deserve to be off. Micky Barron is distraught. I stayed out the changing rooms because I don't want to go in there and have a heart attack - some of them wouldn't care anyway.

"I praised them so much after the weekend, but not tonight. They are soft, too soft.

"I've never enjoyed working with someone as much as Micky and Richie Humphreys. They are close to tears. I can't be bothered to speak to the players after that - I'm embarrassed.

"There's not enough leaders on the park, they can come into work every day as far as I'm concerned, no matter where they live. If they don't want to play for me, come and knock on my door and disappear.''

It doesn’t matter who scored for Preston. What does matter to Pools is who made the mistakes to give the goals away. But while most of last night’s team deserve to be dropped, Cooper doesn’t have the scope to leave out more than a few.

Pools are fifth bottom and Cooper will demand a win at home to Shrewsbury on Saturday. The visitors only have one away point so far and if Pools don’t beat them, we can officially start to panic.