Richie J - goal

By Charlie Summerbell
January 3 2010

With injuries mounting up for Hartlepool United and victories hard to come by at the end of 2009, Chris Turner wasn’t the only person to feel relieved as he saw his team just hold on for a winning start to 2010 against Oldham at Victoria Park. The crowd was just as relieved as Pools grabbed a 2-1 win to get the new year off to a winning start.

With Sam Collins out for a fortnight with an Achilles injury and Gary Liddle also missing the game, Pools started with a new-look central defence, Ben Clark back to partner Frenchman Julian Cherel, making his debut.
And after a shaky start, they did quite well until the closing ten minutes, when Oldham applied real pressure after Peter Hartley was sent off following a bust-up in the home penalty area.
After being on the back foot for a while, Richie Jones’s well-taken header and a good goal from Andy Monkhouse had made the game look safe for Pools by half-time and all the hard work put in by groundstaff and volunteers to get the game on looked to have been worthwhile.
But ex-Darlo player Pavel Abbott scored to narrow the gap and the en men had to battle top keep Oldham out in a desperate finish.

Turner admitted that the top priority was to get the three points, and Pools achieved that after winning just twice in the previous eight games.

Now they face a difficult January with a trip to Charlton followed by MK Dons (h), Bristol Rovers (a), Gillingham (h) and Norwich (a).
The top priority will be to win the two home games, but Pools have a better-than-average away record this season and they’ll also be hoping to get points on the road.