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Pools are playing for their futures

Michael Nelson
By Clarence Rode April 17 2008
For a change, Hartlepool aren't playing for promotion or to avoid relegation as their League One season heads for a mid-table finish. But according to defender Michael Nelson, a lot of players will be playing for their futures in the last three games of the season - and the big defender is one of them.

Nelson's contract is up for renewal in the summer, along with several other members of the senior squad, and he says he and others need to finish the season well.
Monkhouse (large)Andy Monkhouse, meanwhile, is just one of several players who have admitted that Pools have had a disappointing season and, like Nelson, they all have their rerasons for wanting to do well in the last three games.
Pools are at Brighton on Saturday, and they follow that game with their final home match of the season against Nottingham Forest before it all ends with a visit to their old sparring partners Walsall on May 3.
It's the first season for years in which Pools have not gone into the last few games needing points for promotion or, on one occasion, to avoid relegation.
But, as Nelson says, the last three games are still important.
Danny Wilson will be starting his planning for next season, and he has to base that on which of the current crop of players he will still have.
Hopefully, the club won't bore everybody by putting players on the transfer list as soon as there's a snag in contract talks, like they did with Antony Sweeney a couple of weeks ago, but there are a lot of things to sort out in the next few weeks.
Nelson told the Northern Eecho (so much more readable than the Hartlepool Mail, we reckon): "No-one is thinking the season is finished. There are a lot of people who have their contracts up for renewal, which is another thing.
"No-one is certain of the future so there is no case of people saying let's wind the season down and get through to next year.
"There are a lot of players who don't know what is happening yet and whether this game and the next three will have an impact on that."
Wilson will be looking to add to his squad in the summer, with a forward his top priority - he'll have to join a long queue, because every manager in football is always on the look-out for forwards.
The Brighton game won't be easy - they are on the fri nge of the play-off places and will be desperate for late-season points to boost their hopes.

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