Goodbye, Goodbye.... to Van Dommelle and Duncan

By Albatross
December 18 2003

Hartlepool United have announced that Adam Van Dommelle and Kevin Duncan are both leaving the club - Van Dommelle after his extended trial contract expired, and Duncan after being told he won't be awarded a Pro Contract. Oh, and there's some Carribbean magic to warm up the youngsters as well....

Van Dommelle hasn't impressed Cooper as much as his countryman Joel Porter, failing to even make the bench and spending most of his spell playing for the Youth Team. It was while playing for Paul Stephenson's lads that he picked up a bad leg injury, and forced him back to Australiato recuperate before returning to Pools.

It seems effort certainly wasn't the problem - but Coops will be keen to invest his budget in people able to make an impact for the first team. With the emergence of Brackstone and Robson into the senior squad, Van Dommelle needed to have been pretty special for Cooper to add him to his complement of young left sided defenders.

Duncan meanwhile may find himself moving back to Spennymoor or Bishop Auckland after being released. Although he seemed to have a bright future ahead of him following his man of the match performance in the Youth Cup tie at Old Trafford, he's obviously not progressed fast enough to convince Cooper and Scott that he's worth a pro deal.

Meanwhile one player who won't apparently be leaving permanently is Adam Boyd. Although he is spending a second month at Boston, Cooper has indicated that he's not prepared to let Boyd leave permanently - and said he's turned down an approach from Boston to that effect. Boston manager Neil Thompson has denied this though, claiming he's happy just to have the Pools forward on loan.

Saturday will also see Pools enter into the world of International Football for the first time since the departed Gordon Simms' callups for the Northern Irish u21 side. Saturday Morning will see a young Pools side take on a similar group from the St. Vincent & Grenadines squad currently touring the UK. Stepho may not have the opportunity to bring a future star to Coop's attention though: St. Vincent & Grenadines are currently ranked at 169 in the world, in the same bracket as luminaries such as Pakistan, Laos and Nepal; and a more senior side than takes on Pools scraped a 2-1 win over a Wycombe reserve side earlier this week.