Preview: Bournemouth v Hartlepool United

By Albatross
August 9 2005

After Saturday's home defeat, Hartlepool United get their away games started tonight with the trip to the South Coast to take on Bournemouth. The home side have financial difficulties, but also reasons to fancy their chances against Pools.

The League's Fixture Computer is a wonderful thing: what could be better for our first away game than a midweek trip to a place well over 300 miles away? In fact, the only reason that this isn't our longest journey of the whole season is that Yeovil just pips Bournemouth for distance from Pools, by about 10 miles - or at least according to the AA's Route Planner.

Given that Martin Scott's men travel to the South Coast with a 2-0 defeat behind them, you have to say that this is not what the Doctor ordered. Rather than a few days on the training ground to sort things out, Pools have had to get straight on the road to face a team that have plenty of reasons to want to get a result over us. After last season's final day draw saw Pools secure a playoff place ahead of Bournemouth the two clubs seem to have been going in opposite directions - but the Cherries will go into this game with some confidence despite not having won a home game since February.

While Pools have been making quality signings and keeping their team together, Bournemouth - once again facing financial meltdown and the threat of a Sale and Leaseback agreement on their ground being the only way to steady the ship - have lost some key players and have struggled to bring in replacements. Predictions before the start of the season were getting increasingly gloomy - some even thought that relegation was a possiblity - but there is still some quality there. After coming back from 2-0 down to draw with MK Franchise last weekend they have also shown considerable spirit; former Arsenal player James Spicer caught the eye in the fightback, with James Hayter (22 goals last season) and Southampton Loanee Andrew Surman (who played against us while on loan with Walsall) scoring the goals in the last 15 minutes.

Bournemouth then will be in determined mood and will be spurred on by their late heroics against Franchise. Martin Scott meanwhile has some tough decisions to make. Up front, Adam Boyd faltered a little in the face of some heavy marking; Proctor impressed, and so did Jon Daly when he came on. The midfield proved to be something of a problem, but does he bring someone like Strachan in or switch completely to a 3-5-2? Will Humphreys continue as a left back? In many ways Saturday's match asked more questions than it answered about the Pools lineup. With Tinkler, Barron, Porter and Robertson all unavailable through injury we may not see Scott's first choice lineup for a few weekd yet.

So how will we shape up in our first away game of the new season? We drew last year, and on paper at least should be stronger while our opponents are weaker. However we still look like we need a little time to gel, and so I'd be happy enough if we can take a point again. 1-1, with Proctor to open his account for Pools.