Pools quickly back in the old routine
Flinders - pen save
By Charlie Summerbell
January 2 2013
They ended a sad 2012 with a performance and result that warranted not just festive fireworks, but a fly-past from the Red Arrows. But Hartlepool United were back to form as the began the New Year wiuth another Victroria Park flop.
The football that deservedly beat League One leaders Sheffield United on their own ground was totally missing as puny Preston picked up as easy a win as they are ever likely to get.
Their 1-0 success came courtesy of a headed goal from John Mousinho in first-half added time plus a sorry home show.
A rare bright spot was the form of keeper Scott Flinders, who saved a penalty before the Preston goal, but the hopes of another good result that generated quickly disappeared.
Boss John Hughes picked an unchanged team, and probably spent most of the 90 minutes wishing he hadn’t.
He’s admitted that he is desperate to sign Middlesbrough’s Hartlepool-born teenage midfield player Matty Dolan on loan, but it will take more than a 19-year-old, no matter how good he is, to bring about a real change in Pools’ fortunes.
“We’ve been working hard not to give away set-plays,” Hughes told the Mail after the Preston game.
“It’s not as if something wonderful beat us – we beat ourselves really.
“I thought we were the better team in the first half but we lost our way in the second half. I then thought we had a right go late on after the substitutions and we did enough to go and win it.
“We deserved something from the game – where is the luck? Why does the ball just not fall to Hartlepool when it’s flying about?
“I know I’m repeating myself but the fans who were there will agree.”
Some of them will, but others will probably return to blaming individuals for the continued bad results. When a team is winning, everybody says it’s down to team-work, and the same must surely apply to losing.
Now that the transfer window has opened, Hughes is going to face a test with a difference and he will be hoping the break he and his players have now before the next game at Shrewsbury on January 12, will be productive.