Another player signs new deal at Hartlepool United

By Albatross
May 9 2003

Hartlepool United have announced that another player has signed a new two year deal. It's not Graeme Lee though, or even Tommy Widdrington: the latest player to sign up is the enigma that is Jermaine Easter.

The Welshman has signed a new contract that will see him stay at Pools for another two seasons. He arrived originally towards the end of the 2000/1 season, making several substitute appearances, but blotted his copybook by being needlessly dismissed in the Playoff second leg against Blackpool. He's yet to start a game for the first team, but has made 24 sub appearances and scored two goals.

The fact that Easter has been offered a new deal comes as a surprise to many. After a bright start when he first arrived, he has never made a major breakthrough in the first team, and his two goals for the club have both come in games where the issue was already pretty well settled - the final Pools goals in 4-1 and 5-1 victories over Torquay and Southend respectively. This highlights something that a lot of people have noted: he seems to struggle if the pressure's on. In pre-season and reserve games he has found the net regularly - including a double hat-trick in one of our pre-season games in Holland last summer: as soon as there's something at stake though, he's struggled, most recently demonstrated when he came on as an early sub against Macclesfield and by all accounts had a terrible game.

The clue to why he has been given another two years may come in the first work of the SMS message from the club announcing the news: "Midfielder". Easter has nominally been a forward ever since he arrived; but has recently found himself performing on the right wing for the reserves. It was in this position that he came on against Rushden and Diamonds, causing them quite a few problems, and it may be that the coaching staff see that as his best position.

In some ways this makes a lot of sense. Easter's best attributes are his pace and footwork: both the sort of thing you want in a winger. And sometimes it's easier to find the net when you're not one of the main strikers - look at Ritchie Humphreys last season and this.

On the other hand, Easter has a lot of work to do if he's going to win the fans over. Whether it's deserved or not, when you ask people about him the response is frequently along the lines of "not got the bottle". He's frustrating because he has shown he has talent: I remember very well a pre-season friendly at Morecambe a couple of years ago, and he was the best player on the pitch by some distance; but put him in the heat of a competitive game and he seems to freeze, lose tactical awareness, and make "headless chicken" runs that usually lead nowhere.

Perhaps with the touchline to keep him in check he'll be able to direct his play better; and the right side of midfield has been a problem for us this season. But in this case, it will not be how he does in pre-season that matters: he's had two good pre-seasons already. It's how he copes when he's thrown into games in Division 2. The Jury is most definately out.