By Albatross
May 7 2005

It's yet another final day success for Hartlepool United, with a 2-2 draw enough to confirm our playoff place. Tranmere will be our opponents, and ticket arrangements have already been announced. One man though will be missing from the party.... After all the talk of how this week's shenanigans would affect the players, full credit must go to Martin Scott, Paul Stephenson, and all of the players for the way they have responded. We didn't have it easy at Bournemouth, and to battle back not once but twice from being behind shows how much character there is in this squad. After the match Scott said, "I told the players to keep believing and even if they went a goal down to never give up. They responded to that and I am delighted for them and the fans." It's fair to say that there's plenty of delight for Poolies tonight!

Pools now go on to face Tranmere in the playoff semi-finals. The first leg at the Vic will be either this Friday 13th May, with the second leg on Tuesday 17th or Wednesday 18th. The Club Website already has details of the arrangements for tickets for the home leg - and there will be 2300 for Poolies at Prenton Park.

Hopefully by the time the first leg comes round Scott will be left with something of a selection headache: does he bring in the probably fit Joel Porter, or stick with goalscoring hero Jon Daly? Daly wasn't exactly highly rated when he arrived at the Vic; with one goal and good performance he has repayed his transfer fee with interest!

While we're all enjoying the sensation of our fifth playoff qualification in six years, let's not forget though that somewhere (presumably in Scotland) is a man who until Wednesday looked set to be enjoying it with us, and without whom we wouldn't in all probability have been in this position. Neale Cooper, if you're reading this an awful lot of Pools fans would like to say "Thank you" for the good times that in large part thanks to you we are continuing to enjoy.