2004/5 Season Review: March

By Al
June 10 2005

The wheels on the bus go round and round - but in March 2005 they threatened to fall off for Hartlepool United. Fortunately, our playoff rivals weren't doing much better. Pools Online's review of the 2004/5 season continues.

Most of the thoughts of Pools fans were about two potentially massive games in March - we were due to face Hull and Tranmere in the space of five days, and the thinking was that if we won both of them then we'd be well in the frame for automatic promotion. That however took a jolt with the defeat at Stockport at the end of February, and matters were to get even worse.

Wrexham weren't expected to provide too much opposition at Victoria Park, and when Pools went ahead early on thanks to a Gavin Strachan free kick that assessment looked justified. Pools however pushed the self-destruct button; some suicidal defending, coupled with Juan Ugarte's almost perfect finishing on the day, cost us dear. 1-0 up turned to 2-1 down; no sooner had Joel Porter pulled us level than a soft penalty decision allowed Ugarte to complete his hat-trick. Boyd pulled us level again just after the hor mark before Ugarte struck again six minutes later, and after Porter had pulled us level once more with about five minutes left Pools payed the price for continuing to push forward as first Jones and then Ugarte (for the fifth time) punished us on breakaways. While it may have been a great match for the neutral, Pools fans were left to reflect that we'd scored more than enough goals to win it - but that our defence had looked non-existent, never mind shaky.

Travelling to free-scoring Hull then was not exactly ideal. The Pools defence did better, but although there were one or two mumbles about their goal Pools had rarely threatened themselves and certainly hadn't deserved a win. Cooper looked to add cover to his squad by taking veteran Steve Howey on trial.

The game against Tranmere saw plenty of exchanges between Jason McAteer and the Pools crowd - but it was the former Sunderland player that had the last laugh of the day as Chris Dagnall earned Rovers a 1-0 win. Pools had played much better - indeed could and should have taken more out of the game - but were now facing up to four defeats on the trot. Injuries had disrupted the defence - Westwood had missed a couple of games for example, and Ross was still out - but we were right out of form at exactly the wrong time.

Meanwhile there was a new injury scare - and this involved star striker Adam Boyd. It gradually emerged that he'd been caught with a young lady by her Fiance - and Boydie had had to make a sharp exit! He was on the bench for our game at Bradford, with both knees bandaged following his escapade. Despite this Pools still managed to win the game - Eifion Williams put us ahead, and then after conceding an equaliser Joel Porter won the match for Pools. His goal also provided a wonderful "Third Eye" moment to those with Pools World - a disgusted Nicky Summerbee went to volley the ball back into the goal, missed completely and ended up on his backside in the back of the net!

Unfortunately that was to be our last victory of the month - despite a couple of deadline day signings in the form of Steve Howey and Thomas Butler, both on short-term deals. In-form Huddersfield somehow smuggled a 1-0 win away from Victoria Park; and then on the Easter Monday visit to Blackpool Pools drew 2-2 despite having been 2-1 up (Boyd scoring two in two minutes) and with our opponents reduced to ten men for much of the game.

It had been a horrible month for Pools, and the only real consolation was that the teams around us were not really taking advantage of our poor form. Four defeats and a solitary win - and we'd lost five of our last seven. April would have to see an improvement if we were to retain our playoff place - and already automatic promotion was beyond us. There was one bright spot though; our Youth Team finished a highly creditable 3rd in the Super Group competition of the Dallas Cup, earning an invite to the 2006 tournament alongside the likes of Real Madrid. Would the first team be able to show the same battling qualities?