2004/5 Season Review: December

Deal
By Albatross
June 7 2005

After some indifferent form, December finally saw Hartlepool United start to hit their stride. As a result, we moved from mid-table into the Playoff Places. Pools Online's season review looks back on a month of improvement - after an initial blip...

December started off with with our FA Cup tie with Aldershot Town. Pools were expected to win, and duly did - the 5-1 scoreline raised one or two eyebrows though, and so did the fact that Chris Westwood netted not once but twice to earn a "Player of the Round" nomination! The prospect of a big name in Round 3 was dashed though when instead we were given a home tie with Boston.

Away from home it looked to be "same old, same old" though - Pools travelled to Walsall for a midweek fixture, played well in the first half and went in 1-0 up, but faded badly after the break to lose 2-1 - our eighth away defeat in a row. Missing from that game was Mickey Barron - and news emerged that he would need an operation on his knee.

Back at home on the Saturday our opponents were struggling Stockport - soon to appoint Chris Turner as manager. Pools initially looked like making heavy weather of the game, with a certain Jon Daly opening the scoring for the visitors, but another brace from Westwood and a third from Porter were enough to see Pools home.

Pools received a big boost in the following week: Adam Boyd agreed a new deal with the club to end much of the speculation about him moving on. At least now we'd be entitled to a big fee - and in the meantime Boyd would be available to help our challenge for the top six. The following Saturday would see him do precisely that.

Our form on our travels had been pretty dire, but now it was to take a big upturn. The backlash had been building for some time, and Wrexham were the unfortunates that Pools were going to make suffer. Humphreys opened the scoring inside the first ten minutes, and Sweeney added another; Ugarte pulled one back and the Dragons even threatened to equalise before the incisive Hartlepool attack effectively finished the game off by half time, Porter and Boyd sending us in 4-1 up at the break. Sweeney completed the rout in the second half. Eight away defeats in a row were forgotten: 5-1 counted as our best away win in years, and the corner was well and truly turned.

A Boxing Day win over Oldham, 2-1, showed we were still not that great at home; but to finish off the year Pools fought out a hard-earned 0-0 draw at Bristol City. The end of the month had arrived, and at long last Pools had climbed into the playoff places - and for almost all of the remainder of the season that's where we would stay.