Pools release four

By Albatross
May 24 2004

And it's good bye from him.... Hartlepool United have announced the release of four players at the end of their current deals. Mark Robinson, Anthony Williams, Scott Walker and Stephen Carson have all been told they are free to go.

It has to be said that none of the four released are a great surprise. Two of them had in effect left already, and the other two had failed to have much of an impact in their brief time at the club.

Mark Robinson made his Pools Debut on the opening day of the 2000/1 season at Lincoln, not long after his 19th birthday. He made seven appearances that season before becoming the regular starter on the left the following year. He held onto that position for 2002/3 as well, but although he did a reasonable enough job there, there were big doubts over whether he'd done enough to show he could play in Division 2. With Cooper preferring Matty Robson at the start of the season, Robinson had to wait until the end of September for his first start of the campaign; his last appearance for Pools came in the 4-0 defeat at Blackpool in October, where he suffered the indignity of being substituted at half time in favour of debutant John Brackstone. Robinson quickly found himself third choice, and was farmed out on loan to Spennymoor in the Unibond. When Hugh Robertson arrived after Christmas any lingering doubts about his future at Pools were removed: he was on the way out. A loan spell followed at Scarborough, and he recently also played in a reserve match for Darlington on trial.

Tony Williams was supposed to be the future of Welsh Goalkeeping when he arrived at Pools in 2000, and very quickly showed us why with a series of great performances. After the next season though things didn't go so well with more and more errors creeping into his game. While he was still capable of brilliance (Bournemouth on Sky in 2002/3 springs to mind), we were seeing the other side too often, and although you couldn't say he was directly at fault, we were letting in too many goals from the shots on target. With Cooper giving Provett a chance this season that the young Keeper grasped with a vengeance, Williams found himself on the bench; and shortly after publicly saying that he needed first team football and would have to consider his options, he found himself displaced by Dimi Konstantopoulos and went on loan to first Swansea and then Stockport. Stockport may yet be his next destination, although as at Pools, many fans are not entirely convinced by Taff.

The other two players had both been short term signings. Scott Walker arrived primarily as cover in central defence, taking part in 6 games (5 starts); mainly this was when Nelson or Westwood were either unavailable or in Westie's case was called on to cover at right back. He certainly didn't look capable of displacing them on performances alone, and when Tinkler moved back to great effect and then Darren Craddock emerged into the first team the need for Walker diminished. Great songwriter though! Stephen Carson arrived at the end of February and made just three appearances on the wing - and his only start saw him substitued for Istead early in the second half of our defeat against QPR.

With four players out, the question will be who will be coming in - watch this space......