Is the Hartlepool United bus still driving itself?

By Albatross
March 31 2003

"This Bus drives itself." That's what Gordon Watson said about Hartlepool United prior to the appointment of Mike Newell. Recent results seem to suggest the wheels are about to fall off though. Let's try and answer the question on everyone's lips: "Why?"

Saturday's result against Bournemouth may have been, in the end, a point gained rather than two lost, but there are now serious questions in the minds of Poolies everywhere about the destination of the Championship. And when you look at the form of Pools and Rushden repsectively, it's not hard to see why....

Rushden are currently the form side in the division. They are unbeaten in five, have scored 10 goals in that time, and brought in Dean Holdsworth on deadline day to add to their firepower. Meanwhile, Pools have failed to score for three games, have won just one of our last seven, and the last time a forward scored from open play was ten games ago.

So what's gone wrong? How does a side that was fourteen points clear at the end of February find itself just three clear now?

For starters, there's no denying that our forwards are out of sorts. Eifion has been struggling for a good couple of months now, and the other options just don't seem to be working. Boyd and Williams as a partnership looks a bit lightweight up front at times, Richardson has had the flu and come back looking badly out of form, and Boyd seems to be yo-yoing in and out of favour. Watson has finally started a game again - despite a number of rumours saying we'd seen the last of him, while Hendo is a workmanlike player but not necessarily the man to produce the goals in a side low on confidence. We are now at the stage where one or two people think Easter should be given a chance, based on his reserve performances - what price ANYONE saying that after his nightmare against Macclesfield? No disrespect to the lad, but he's never really shown what he can do when given his chance - but is now touted as a possible solution to our striking problems.

It's not just up front, either. Players all over the park are looking jaded, tired, and out of sorts. And yet this is the same side that had pulled out that 14 point lead, and had been handed the championship by most fans - even of other clubs - a couple of months ago.

I think there are two things at play here: confidence, and pressure. Anyone who's seen us play recently has seen that certain key players just aren't performing with anywhere near the confidence they were earlier in the season; Eifion Williams is a case in point. And the pressure has risen because far from simply being well placed to win promotion, the expectations of this team have risen considerably. A side that is 14 points clear at ANY stage of the season is expected to win the title: when there are 13 games to go it's as close as most regard as a racing certainty. A month ago, we were told that some Bookies had already stopped taking bets on the championship - or had us as such odds-on favourites that it wasn't worth putting any money on.

All this means there's pressure on the players and manager, and many teams that are runaway leaders find the last few points the hardest to get. The last time we were promoted, Darlington had been well clear - but only clinched the title (and indeed promotion) on the very last day of the season; last year, Plymouth were almost caught by Luton. Add to this the fact that it seems almost every team seems to have something to play for - promotion, playoffs or relegation struggle - and life gets tough. The last team that arguably had nothing to play for when they faced us was Southend - a game that we won.

There are other issues as well though. Pools are maybe becoming a little too predictable tactically. 4-4-2 has been the order of the day for almost the whole season, home and away - so any team we are likely to face should know that and play accordingly. All it takes then is for maybe two or three players to be off form, and we're struggling. A classic example was against Wrexham, where our midfield was constantly out-numbered by their system - and with Tinkler especially looking a bit off form we were always on the back foot. Had we played 3-5-2 to match them, it would have maybe given us that extra strength in the middle to compensate for that.

The saving grace for Pools is that everyone else is still taking points off each other. Depite our recent poor form, the gap to 4th place is still 14 points, and even if Wrexham win all of their games in had the lead over 4th should still remain in double digits. And while the teams we have to face mostly have something to play for, the same goes for Rushden as well. Pools have to face playoff/promotion contenders Scunthorpe away, and Playoff outsiders Kiddy away, and relegation battlers Shrewsbury at the Vic - but also have home games against two teams that look to be going nowhere in Orient and Rochdale; Rushden meanwhile have to face Carlisle, Bristol Rovers and Macclesfield of those near the bottom, and Lincoln from the top as well as travelling to Orient. Neither run-in is particularly easy - but at the moment I'd take ours, with home games against two safe teams and maybe a third if Shrewsbury can pull away from the bottom before we play them in the penultimate game of the season.

It look like going down to the wire, which is a disappointment in many ways after being so far ahead: but don't forget, until the 99/2000 season we were all chewing our fingernails wondering if we were going to avoid the drop most years. It shows how far we've progressed that we're clinging on to the top spot by our fingernails rather than league status itself. Let's hope the battling spirit we've shown at the other end so many times will see us through. In the words of the famous Pools recording, "Never Say Die!"