Hartlepool United 2002/3 Review: December

By Albatross
May 19 2003

The Pools Online review of the 2002/3 season reaches December - not the best of months for Hartlepool United, and some controversy over a moved game threatened to overshadow some events on the pitch...

With the first weekend of December reserved for FA Cup ties, Pools had a week off. One result that day was to have some implications for Pools though: Scunthorpe and Carlisle drew, and pulled out a plum when the Third Round was decided - a home tie against Leeds. Sky were interested in showing the replay, and the two clubs were rubbing their hands with glee - until Sky said they wanted the game to be played on Thursday 19th. Scunny were already due to play Pools on the Friday - a move that was agreed when the fixtures were first published. Sky didn't want to budge - and all of a sudden the pressure was on Pools to move the game back to the Saturday. Pools asked for compensation.

With time running out a deal was agreed - but soon after came an extraordinary outburst from Carlisle Chairman John Courtenay. He made an impassioned statement on one of Carlisle's unofficial sites that as good as accused Pools of extortion. His ill-considered remarks soon found a wider audience, and stirred Carlisle fans in particular into a frenzy: there was talk of them boycotting the New Years Day game, refusing to spend money in the stadium, and other more extreme measures that the webmaster of the Carlise site had to remove.

In the meantime, there was a match to be played. Rochdale had been struggling for much of the season, and even though Pools would be without the suspended Barron and Clarke, a seventh away win of the season looked to be on the cards. We couldn't have been more wrong. Platt headed home the first when Taff failed to make what looked like a straightforward save; and then McEvilly had a goal giftwrapped for him when a poor backpass from Westie was kept in by Taff, who in doing so left the ball for the Rochdale forward to put into an empty net. A third gift arrived for Connor when Bass failed to make a straightforward clearance from a cross, and McEvilly's second just added insult to injury.

With the Carlisle/Scunny money row still in full swing, the weather took a hand. A cold snap caught the Cumbrians by surprise (Cumbria cold in December? Shock horror!) and despite a major effort to defrost the pitch the game was postponed. With the rearranged game no longer on Sky, all three clubs lost out on the cash - a situation that Brian Laws was especially critical of.

When the moved game against Scunny took place, Pools seemed determined to carry on where they left off. Scunny went ahead, and it took an own goal on the stroke of half time to send Pools in level. Soon after the break the visitors took the lead again, and it was only the introduction of Henderson as a sub that turned things around, the equaliser coming right at the end of the game to earn Pools a point. Meanwhile, Rushden were closing the gap; there was just a single point between us.

Boxing Day saw Pools as the first competetive opponents at Hull's Kingston Communications Stadium. More than 22,000 fans were in attendance, and what had always looked a tough task with the home side likely to be fired up turned out to be too much for Pools, who lost to a goal in each half. To add to our misery, Paul Smith - who had already been in and out of the side through injury, and had looked nothing like the flying winger of the previous season - suffered a bad gash that was to see him out for some time, and a draw for Rushden saw them take the top spot from us on goal difference. For the first time since the win over Darlo in mid-September, someone other than Hartlepool United was on top of the table.

This situation though lasted all of two days. Pools were at home to the free-scoring Cambridge, and produced a superb performance to win 3-0 - a scoreline that could easily have been more - and became the first side in Division 3 to stop Cambridge scoring. Combined with Rushden's surprising home defeat to Oxford, this meant that December finished as it began - with Pools on top and Rushden our closest challengers. Things were to improve even more in the near future.