Match Preview: Hartlepool United v Luton Town

By Albatross
April 6 2004

After the original game was postponed late in the day, it's finally time for Mike Newell and Hartlepool United to renew their acquaintanceship. Currently Newell has one up on his former employers, but Pools have plenty of reasons to want to set that right tonight.

Luton currently sit one place and two points ahead of Pools, and with a game in hand; however, recent form is nothing much to write home about. Just two league games played in January set them up for a programme of six matches in February; four wins and a draw were enough to win Mike Newell Manager of the Month. Since then though they have won just one out of six games, although with just one defeat also - at Port Vale - they have been able to stay in contention.

Newell's success at Luton has surprised most Pools fans, and on 606 last weekend there were even a couple of Blackburn fans suggesting he should take over from Souness. While that may be a bit extreme, it has to be admitted that given the resources at his disposal, the former Pools boss has done a more than creditable job. Yes, he inherited a pretty good squad - but despite losing a number of players and facing severe financial restraints due to the brief John Gurney saga, Luton have done far better than almost anyone expected. Newell loaned Gary McSheffrey for a long and fruitful spell up front, brought in Marlon Beresford in goal - and then signed a reasonable replacement in Morten Hyldgaard when Beresford left - and struck lucky with the previously unknown Enoch Showunmi to help plug the gaps.

McSheffrey may have left back in December, but he remains joint leading scorer in the league for Luton with nine; right winger Adrian Forbes has scored 14 in total, but that includes five in the FA Cup - including a hat-trick against Thurrock. The forward line looks set to be Showunmi (eight league goals) and former Poolie Steve Howard (also eight) - and given that Howard seems to make a habit of scoring against us, we will have to keep a very close eye on him tonight.

Luton do have injury and suspension problems, and that will not help their cause at all. Paul Underwood played for just 20 minutes after signing from Rushden before picking up a hamstring injury that means he won't play tonight; Alan Neilson picked up a similar injury at the weekend and will almost certainly miss out as well. Peter Holmes is struggling with an ankle injury, Paul Hughes has problems with his knee, Russell Perrett has yet to recover from a calf injury after a series of setbacks this season, and Matthew Spring has recently had an operation on his groin and is likely to miss the remainder of the season. Kevin Nicholls is also missing through suspension.

Pools of course have selection problems of their own. Mickey Barron may well miss out again, Nelson is almost certain to be missing still, and Scott Walker is apparently back in Scotland for personal reasons. Darren Craddock will probably remain at right back if Barron is unable to resume, and that means it's likely to be Mark Tinkler partnering Westie in the middle again. Cooper may decide to carry out a reshuffle in midfield - Strachan and Humphreys look nailed-on to start, but beyond that there are opportunites for other players to stake a claim. Sweeney and Clarke are the most likely starters, but Istead will be hoping to add another start as well, while another option could be to move Humphreys inside and give Joel Porter a go on the left hand side.

A two goal victory for Pools tonight would see us move into sixth place by virtue of having scored more goals than Bournemouth - Saturday's visitors to the Vic - and to be honest a win is looking essential if Pools are to have more than an outside chance of a playoff place. Fail to get a victory and we're still at least two points back and without a game in hand - far from irretrievable, but a long way from being in pole position - or even at the front of the grid.

It's going to be a tough task for Pools though, with both defence and midfield looking very different from normal. Add in the fact that Newell, despite trying to play things down, would love to get one over on his former employers, all the more because it would boost their playoff hopes at our expense, and you get a very tense fixture on both sides. Luton have their selection problems, as do Pools - but I'm going for Cooper's men to bounce back from a couple of disappointments and gain a 2-1 win, Williams and Strachan scoring and inevitably Howard netting for our opponents.