Preview: Port Vale v Hartlepool United

By Albatross
February 18 2005

It may not be St. Mary's, but Vale Park is a place with some happy memories for Hartlepool United after last season's Winter Wonderland Encounter. Can we claim another away win in Burslem? We certainly need to bounce back after the last couple of results...

What a difference a season makes. When Pools won in the snow last January, in front of "95 Nutters" as Neale Cooper memorably stated, the Playoffs were a distant target and Port Vale were looking more likely to be in the end of season shakedown. We of course pipped them for 6th place by season's end, and this season has seen our respective fortunes going in different directions. Pools have raised their game, strengthened their squad, and established themselves in the top six; Vale have lost players and find themselves slightly too close to the bottom of the table for comfort.

Financial considerations mean that Martin Foyle's budget has been quite limited, and the loss of several key players has hit them hard with replacements not quite matching the standards of their predecessors. Stephen McPhee and Marc Bridge-Wilkinson both departed in the summer; Steve Brooker was sold to Bristol City at the end of September; and Andreas Lipa's injury hit season saw him play just twice before being released by mutual agreement in December. Such has been the struggle for Martin Foyle that he's ended up signing two players released as a cost-cutting measure by Macclesfield on non-contract terms: George Abbey, who has made seven starts, and a certain Tommy Widdrington. Widds has made four sub appearances, and os apparently playing for nothing while also helping out with Port Vale's youth setup! He's not the only player in the squad with Pools connections either; Jeff Smith, who made 4 appearances for Pools in 1998/9 before being released and making his way to Bolton via Bishop Auckland, has been featuring regularly at Vale Park this season.

Money worries certainly seem to be the order of the day for Vale - as they have been for some time. It's recently been reported that they may have to take legal action against shirt sponsors Tricell, who have apparenly failed to make an agreed payment and are going into administration, and Chairman Bill Bratt has written a letter to an American Billionaire in the hope that he will be interested in paying them to rename Vale Park after Reginald Mitchell, who created the Spitfire.

Hitting the net has been a major problem for Vale this season - they have scored fewer goals than any other side in the division. Their leading scorer so far this season is home-grown talent Billy Paynter with just eight league goals (plus another three in cup games); after that, it says much that no-one else has surpassed Brooker's five league goals although midfielder Chris Birchall has matched that total and scored another in the LDV, and former Bristol City forward Lee Matthews has also reached the landmark of five goals. Paynter isn't being helped by the lack of a regular partner though - Matthews has struggled with injury throughout the season, and while former Plymouth forward Nathan Lowdnes netted his first for the club in last week's win at Stockport he then had to go off injured. It's a sorry tale that has been repeated all too often for Vale this season - one of the reasons Widdrington was signed up was because of their lack of cover.

They have won their last two matches though, a home win against Bournemouth preceding their win at Stockport. The six points gained were all the more vital as they were in serious danger of being pulled into the relegation places following three defeats in a row - and they have also lost three of their last four home games. There have been a few notable wins at home - Hull, Bristol City and Tranmere have all been beaten - but overall they have lost six of their 15 games on their own turf.

Pools meanwhile face having to lift themselves for this game after two successive home defeats - something that seemed unthinkable a week ago. There are plenty of less than impressed Poolies after the defeat to Luton; whatever the reasons for Neale Cooper's team selection, the 3-4-3 formation didn't work with the side looking painfully short of width. Whether it was to accomodate Daly up front, to give Robertson a rest, or simply that he felt it would expose opposition weaknesses there were still a few questions to be asked on Wednesday Morning; admittedly the Ross decision was made quite late on, but leaving him on the bench and asking Sweeney to patrol the flank seemed almost as strange to me as the formation itself.

The cost of Tuesday's defeat against Luton was more than just the loss of three points; Cooper has also lost the services of Chris Westwood and Mark Tinkler after both had to come off injured. The early indications are that Westie will be missing for three weeks or more with his hamstring injury, with Tinkler likely to be missing for a similar length of time. Sweeney is also doubtful, although Michael Nelson should be fit. As it is Cooper will have to rejig things. I suspect we're likely to see a move back to 4-4-2, with Clark or Barron partnering Nelson, Ross returning at right back, Robertson or possibly Robson on the left, and Strachan and Sweeney or Clark the central midfield partnership. Who will play on the right of midfield in that case is open to debate: possibly we could ask Porter to play on the flank (possibly swapping around with Humphreys who had some success on the right earlier this season), leaving Daly and Boyd to play up front, while Williams and Istead seem to be the other options.

While one league defeat is hardly a crisis, Cooper knows that a positive result on Saturday would go a long way towards restoring our lost momentum. Another defeat and those tired legs in the Pools lineup will find it that extra bit harder for our fourth game in 11 days against Brentford on Tuesday; go in with a win though and hopes of revenge will be significantly higher. At this stage of the season it's all about runs: a good one can get you moving up, while a bad one can drag you down. The challenge for Cooper is to stop two defeats becoming three, and to build up the confidence that has taken a bit of a battering in the last week.

Can Pools walk out of the Potteries with three points this season? On paper you'd have to say the answer is yes - but it won't be easy. A hard battle is what I see ahead, and probably nothing like the sort of entertainment the few of us saw last season. However I'm going for Pools to scrape a 2-1 win, with goals from Porter and Humphreys to give us the points.