Monky - goal

By Charlie Summerbell
December 20 2009

Mediocre, average, run-of-the-mill, middling, ordinary, middle-of-the-road, pedestrian – pick your own word to describe Hartlepool United’s League One season so far, because any one of them fits. They’ve looked good once or twice and they’ve been rubbish just as often, but usually they are just plain old average.

That was the case at the Vic on Saturday when they needed a second-half fight-back to earn a point in a 1-1 draw with another very average team, Yeovil, on a day when volunteers helped clear snow from the pitch in order to get the match on.
And then wondered why they bothered.
Chris Turner admitted after the game that he gave his team a verbal kick up the backside at half-time after a poor first-half show.
At least they responded with a much better second-half performance, and overall Turner wasn’t too unhappy with the way the game went in conditions he described as difficult.
Of course, they were difficult for both teams, and in the first half Yeovil looked far more interested in the points than Pools did. But in the second half the home team took over, and at times they were unlucky to only score the once, through Andy Monkhouse.
Another disappointment after great work by groundstaff and volunteers to clear the snow was the crowd of just 2,778 – only 85 from faraway Yeovil, and of course it was the weekend before Christmas, the game was a bit doubtful in the weather, and it was perishing cold.
But Pools will never attract proper crowds until they start getting proper results CONSISTENTLY.
Meanwhile, Turner is being linked with a January transfer-window move for Colin Healy, the former Cork midfield player who was on the verge of signing during the summer only to be lured to Ipswich by Roy Keane.

Healy has struggled to get first team football at Portman Rod, and Ipswich have announced they are keen to offload fringe players when the window opens.
Whether Healy or a player like him can turn Pools from average into something better remains to be seen.

At least on Saturday, fighting back for a result was better than throwing away a match-winning position and the overall consolation is that “average” and all those other words like it are preferable to awful, which is what Pools were most of last season.