Hartlepool United's Loan Rangers - Update

By Albatross
March 15 2004

Hi ho Silver, away! They may not be masked men, but Hartlepool United currently have no less than four players away from the club on loan. Pools Online has a quick look at how they're getting on....

While a couple of players (notably Adam Boyd) are now back with Pools, we still have four of our squad that are currently turning out elsewhere. Here's an update as to how our four loan rangers are getting on....

Tony Williams
After a bit of a falling out with the fans and having to issue an apology following a game with Swindon, Taff seems to have settled in a bit better at Edgely Park. So far he's played eight times, and has kept three clean sheets - two in the last two games that have helped the Hatters to wins over Bristol City and Brentford. Opinions seem to vary though, with some saying he had a decent game on Saturday, and others complaining about him flapping at crosses and giving the crossbar (which the Bees hit twice) more credit for the clean sheet! Apparently Pools have denied Stockport permission to play Williams against us, so he will have to forego an interesting welcome from the Pools Fans tomorrow night.

Jermaine Easter
Initial reports from Cambridge seemed to suggest that Easter was replicating the same sort of form for them that we'd seen on his appearances for the first team at Pools - plenty of comments about his pace, running and trickery, but also noting that he seemed able to do anything except score. Nevertheless, Cambridge decided to keep him for an extra month, and on Saturday Easter finally delivered with a brace against, of all people, Darlington. A couple of cool finishes helped his side move from a goal down to 3-1 ahead, Cambridge eventually winning 4-3.

Mark Robinson
Robbo has played just twice for the Seadogs, in part because of a series of postponements. They lost both games, and are starting to look in an increasingly precarious position just above the relegation zone - although they do have as many as five games in hand on some of the teams around them. His month's loan is due up this week, so we should expect some news on whether he's staying there longer towards the end of the week. He didn't play any part in last weekend's victory over Leigh RMI, so possibly not.....

Andy Appleby
Appleby has scored six goals for Whitby, and seems to have impressed the fans there. He's not scored in the last couple of games, but does now have a new strike partner - former Darlo striker Mark Sheeran has joined Whitby until the end of the season. Despite having played just ten games, Appleby's six goals sees him as joint leading scorer in the league with Craig Veart - if he stays there for a bit longer he could well end up as their top scorer in what has been a season of relative struggle for the Seasiders in the Unibond Premier.