Pools begin to believe in miracles
Yogi - high hopes
By Charlie Summerbell
February 6 2013
Look at the next few fixtures, look at the table ... there's an outside chance that Hartlepool United could perform a miracle and escape League One relegation, a feat that looked out of the question just a few short weeks ago.
No, I’ve not been at the gin … ending their long losing home run last weekend and picking up seven points out of nine in their last there away games have transformed the no-hopers into a team with at least a chance of survival.
This weekend’s visit to third-top Swindon is arguably their toughest game in the rest of
February, and even then they are playing a club in crisis as manager Paulo Di Canio considers his future amid boardroom uncertainty.
That game is followed by a midweek home game against second bottom Portsmouth, who are in freefall and who lost at home to Pools last month, a home game against mid-table Leyton Orient, a visit to fifth-bottom Scunthorpe and a home game against mid-table Crewe.
Not long ago any fixture sent shivers of fear through Pools and their fans. Now that list actually gives them fresh hope … they are still bottom, of course, but they are now just two points behind Pompey and ten behind a safe place outside the bottom four.
They still have a lot to do, but it’s not as impossible a task as it appeared at the turn of the year, and John Hughes is right to feel more upbeat.
He told the Northern Echo: “A lot of opposition coaches and say they used to hate coming to Hartlepool, they were in a game, a battle and we need to get back to that again.
"I know the way others play football - Bournemouth and Notts County - in popping it around and passing it, that's how I want to be. But it doesn't mean the best football team wins the match, that was evident on Saturday.
"I feel that the mindset and talking about what might arise in a game helped them out.”
Hughes might not have performed the miracle he needed, but he appears to have stopped the rot and halted the slide.
If Pools can take six or eight points from the 15 they play for in February, that miracle just might be on.