More to do: Pools need to build on win

By Albatross
December 12 2005

It's been a torrid week, but the win over Bournemouth certainly helps the mood. However that needs to be just the start of a run of form to persuade me that we've really turned the corner.

So we finally have another home win, and the world seems a little brighter for Pools fans. There were positive signs to take from the Bournemouth game, but I'm afraid it's a bit early to talk about a corner being turned. If we're 9 or 10 points better off after the game with Swindon on 2nd January I'll be more convinced.

Hodcroft's programme notes had obviously been carefully put together. He never quite blamed the fans for the performances, but did comment on the diffference it can make and called for us to get behind the team; and pointed out that the situation is not quite as black as some have painted it without claiming that all is rosy. On the whole it was pretty well done, even if one or two of the facts weren't quite right (we were and still are three points worse off than the same stage last season, and the Boyd/Porter partnership grabbed 45 goals last season rather than 50). The atmosphere at the Vic this season has been commented on by many a fan this season though, and while there has been less to sing about that's not stopped us before.....

At times like this I feel like cursing one of the Garry Gibson era decisions that's stayed with us longest - the seating of the Rink End and subsequent turning it into the away end. It's no secret that acoustically it's the best area of the ground; it doesn't take many fans in it to make a noise, and it's not the Pools fans making it. The club has apparently made attempts to move the away section to one of the sides only to be thwarted by the powers that be; what a difference there would be to the atmosphere if there were Poolies standing in the Rink using their voices, a situation that sadly won't happen again.

One situation that has happened again though is that some players have made their long-awaited return from injury. Hugh Robertson has followed Mickey Barron into the team and the defence looked a lot better as a result; it also gives us the option of playing Darren Williams in the centre back role it was assumed he'd be filling should Sunderland decide we can't keep Neill Collins for the rest of the season. Ben Clark - rumoured to have had a big falling out with Scott a couple of months back - did an effective job in the midfield holding role. And Darrell Clarke was on the bench to provide another attacking option from the midfield later in the game, depite many fearing he'd never pull on a Pools shirt again. In a couple of cases there have been stories about these players thinking their time at Pools was over while Scott was there: were they false, or has Scott bitten his lip and changed his mind? Frankly I don't care so long as the team is doing the business.

One bit of business that Scott will be hoping to do this week is to secure Dean McDonald for a longer spell. After scoring his first goal on Saturday, the Ipswich Town man has started to look like he'll fit in until Boyd and Porter are fit again - but his loan spell expires after next weekend's game at Walsall. The Tractor Boys are currently without a win in five though, and it may depend on whether Joe Royle thinks McDonald can help pull them out of a slide that sees them languishing in 17th place.