Hartlepool United 2002/3 Season Review: Analysis
By Albatross
July 22 2003
Hartlepool United achieved promotion in 2002/3, but missed out on the title. Was the season a success, or a failure? A strange question to ask, but one that Poolies will have differing answers to.
The History Books will show that 2002/3 was a successful season for Pools: promotion in second place, just two points behind the champions. The most successful season in our history? Maybe - the only real competition comes from the end of the Fred Westgarth era, when Pools finished as runners-up in Division 3 North in 1956/7, but didn't get promoted. We were top of the division for all but nine games of the season, recorded a record points tally for the club, and had a much improved average attendance.
However, the abiding memories for many Poolies will be of being 14 points clear and still failing to win the title, securing promotion to a chorus of boos, and failing to win an away game in the last three months of the season. It's a situation that brings to mind the story of George Best, in a plush hotel, £20,000 in cash and Miss World on the bed; the waiter bringing the bottle of vintage champagne in turned to the former footballer and said "George, where did it all go wrong?" After a season that we've never seen the like of at Pools before, it seems churlish not to be over the moon, but the truth is that many fans feel that we blew our best ever chance of winning some silverware.
Some fingers have already been pointed at Mike Newell. Is this fair? Well, let's have a look at the evidence.
When Chris Turner left, our league record was P17 W10 D4 L3 Pt34. We were five points clear. Mike Newell's record after he took over was P28 W13 D9 L6 Pt48. In terms of raw numbers, Newell doesn't match up; but if he'd repeated that over the whole season, we'd be looking at a record similar to P46 W21 D15 L10 Pt78 - more than enough for a playoff place, and maybe even pushing for an automatic slot. And this is from someone who came in mid-season to work with players he probably knew little about before the job came up. Under the circumstances, not a bad record.
To a large extent, whoever took over from Chris Turner would have been on a hiding to nothing this season. Get promoted and it's CT's team, miss out and it's the new man's fault: that was always going to be the way. It's happened to Pools before; Alan Murray was in charge when we last won promotion, but it was still Cyril Knowles' side; and Gus McLean is still regarded as having guided Brian Clough's team to promotion, even though it was a full year after Cloughie had left!
The problem Newell has had if anything is that our expectations got very high after the fantastic run we had in January and February. If you'd said to me on Boxing Day after the defeat at Hull that we'd still be in with a shout of the title on the last day, I'd have bitten your hand off; and so I'm sure would a lot of other people. If there had just been a couple of points in it all the way through, with the teams changing positions regularly, it wouldn't have been such a disappointment. But instead, we built a lead that looked unassailable, and then blew it in the final two months of the season. Had the bad results been staggered throughout the last four months, we would never have reached the stage of expecting the title rather than merely hoping for it.
That's not to say that Newell is blameless though. Our away record after Christmas was poor, with the only wins coming at Boston and Macclesfield; and the lack of flexibility we displayed away from the Vic at times was very worrying. We stuck to a rigid 4-4-2 for almost the whole time under Newell; Turner had deployed 3-5-2 in quite a few away fixtures when he wanted to keep things tight, and it paid off. Against Wrexham we struggled against their 3-5-2, and yet stuck with a 4-4-2 that was frequently over-run in midfield. Maybe Newell didn't want to tinker too much with a system and team that had proved so effective; but we frequently didn't play up to par away from the Vic until the Rushden game.
Then there's the issue of the squad. Every single player that appeared for Mike Newell was one of Turner's team; there were no new faces, and the only departures before the end of the season were players who were on the fringes like Simms and McKenzie, and the on-loan Barry-Murphy, who was recalled by Preston. You can't blame one of Newell's signings when he hasn't made any at all.... though you may ponder whether he should have brought someone else in.
Much was made about the situation with Gordon Watson, and I'm not sure if we'll ever find out exactly what went on. But what sort of impact did Flash make when he finally did return? There was only really one game for me where he made a real difference - against Shrewsbury. When he first came back in, he was obviously not fully fit; and when he did regain fitness, he rarely threatened to spark the Pools attack into life.
We shouldn't forget either that Newell persuaded a number of key players to sign new deals. Humphreys, Barron, Tinkler, Westwood; if they seriously wanted to leave, they would have found other clubs - but instead they will all still be at Hartlepool United next season.
So is it Chris Turner's fault? After all, he left mid-season, throwing the club into a spin, and took Colin West - the only logical successor at the club - with him. He left behind a settled squad used to his way of doing things, a tough prospect for any manager to cope with. You can argue that all of the possible weak points in the team - such as the right of midfield, or the lack of experienced goalkeeping cover to pressure Taff - are down to decisions he made about players. But then, this isn't entirely fair either: he'd given us a period of sustained achievement and top ten finshes that we haven't had for years, and brought in players of the calibre of Humphreys, Watson and Smith that some of us never dreamed we'd see in a blue and white shirt. We all knew he was going to move on, and that Sheffield Wednesday was likely to be coming knocking some day.
To be honest if we're going to talk about blame, then let's stoke up some rivalry: let's blame Sheffield Wednesday FC! If their board hadn't proved so inept at choosing managers and allowing them too much money, Chris Turner might still be waiting for his dream job to come up; or they may have persuaded Peter Reid or George Burley to take it after all.
When it comes down to it though, this season has shown us once again what following a lower division football team is all about. It's about the euphoric highs, the stomach-churning lows, the roller-coaster of emotion that you experience in the 90 minutes of every game. It's about taking the 4-0 defeats and the 4-0 victories, and then moving on to the next game no matter what the result. I love it, and can't wait for it to start all over again.