2004/5 Season Review: February

By Albatross
June 9 2005

After a couple of good months, Hartlepool United looked set to push for automatic promotion in February. Some variable form though meant that we would face some crucial games the following month. The Pools Online review of 2004/5 continues.

If December and January had seen Pools fans dreaming of automatic promotion, February was to see more of a return to reality. To start with though Pools seemed to want to continue where they'd left off - a 1-0 win at Chesterfield, Boyd the scorer, meant we had now gone 12 games undefeated in all competitions and 7 of them had been away. Boyd also picked up the Player of the Month award for January for our division, to add to Cooper's Manager of the Month award.

To bolster the squad, Pools then signed Jon Daly from Stockport. Views on him were mixed from his former club, with many less than complimentary; however as a tall forward he offered something different and would add depth to the squad.

The Cup Replay with Brentford had to be played on the following Saturday due to midweek internationals, and signalled the end of our unbeaten run at home. Jack Ross was harshly dismissed inside the first ten minutes - a decision that was successfully appealed against - and although Dimi saved the penalty that resulted, Pools went out 1-0 despite a brave effort. Once again, a place in the 5th round had eluded us.

Back into League action, Pools took on leaders Luton at the Vic and came off distinctly second best. Luton were already two goals ahead by the time Pools got on the scoresheet, and within two minutes of that goal they were 3-1 ahead; a late rally saw Robson score, but too late to prevent our second home defeat in less than a week.

Away from home it was still a different story though; an early goal from Joel Porter was enough to earn a win at Port Vale. The following Tuesday saw us play Brentford again - this time in the league; the match went ahead after heavy snow had been cleared from the pitch, much to the relief of five intrepid Bees fans that had done a fund-raising walk all the way to Pools from Brentford for the game. They weren't rewarded with a win though: Pools took the points, winning 3-1 despite going behind early in the second half, with Boyd, Williams and Sweeney all on target. It was Boyd's 20th goal of the season. Meanwhile Mark Tinkler was also celebrating - he'd been suspended for the game, but had signed a new contract to keep him at Pools for another two seasons.

By now we were seriously wondering whether we'd be able to overhaul Tranmere and Hull and win automatic promotion. We were in 4th spot, had games in hand, and were yet to play both of the other challengers; our purple patch from the start of December made us arguably the form team in the division, and our away record in that time read P6 W4 D2. We'd lost a total of one league game in 12, that being against the leaders and probable champions, and taken a total of 30 points from a possible 36. All was bright in the garden.

Until that is we travelled to a Stockport side that were as good as relegated already at the end of February. It should have been a foregone conclusion; instead, Stockport raised their game, Pools had an off day, and lost 1-0. It also cost us the services of Jack Ross; he was injured diving in to make a tackle, and looked set for a long spell on the sidelines. In fact, it turned out to be his last appearance for the club. The following month would show that the defeat at Edgeley Park was to be only the start of our problems.