By Albatross
May 14 2003

Hartlepool United extended their lead at the top, a couple of players arrived, and all was rosy in the garden as Pools continued to make progress towards promotion. But the end of the month was to cast a shadow over Pools, as our review of 2002/3 reaches October. The Striker rumours that had been circulating were proved to be on the mark when Marcus Richardson arrived early in October. Richardson had scored against us for Torquay, and although the Plainmoor club were keen to keep him, they were unable to offer him a sufficiently good deal when his contract expired in September. Reports on him varied - "like Bambi on ice" was the view of one Gulls fan - but his height meant that he offered something different to our other forwards.

Richardson was on the bench for our first game of the month at Shrewsbury, but most eyes were on Chris Westwood and Luke Rodgers following their bust-up at the Vic the previous season. As it turned out there was no trouble at all, with a struggling for fitness Rodgers causing few problems as Pools kept things tight and came away with victory through an Eifion Williams goal. Richardson made his debut as a late sub.

The following Sunday saw Pools live on Sky as they faced Bournemouth at the Fitness First Stadium. The driving rain and gale-force winds made a mockery of any "Sunny South Coast" claims, but things looked good for Pools when Eifion nipped in to put them ahead. However, things soon took a turn for the worse; Mickey Barron got himself sent off, and although Taff saved the resulting penalty, it was always going to be backs to the wall stuff, with Bournemouth having the wind at their backs for the whole second half. Sure enough, Pools were struggling to getthe ball beyond the halfway line after the break, and only some more heroics from Taff kept Pools in the game; eventually though the dam was breached, and we lost 2-1 - our first away defeat of the season.

Things were soon back to winning ways though. Wrexham were the visitors, Richardson made his first start, and scored his first goal for the club. Tinkler netted a hat-trick, and Pools were cruising at 4-1 before taking their foot off the pedal and letting the Welshmen back into it, eventually holding out for a 4-3 win.

Then it was time to have another crack at Tranmere, this time at Prenton Park in the LDV Trophy. With another League Game on the Friday, Turner decided that this was way down the priority list and fielded a side that was, in effect, the reserves - not one of the players who had started against Wrexham was in the side. Tranmere meanwhile needed a confidence boost and fielded a full-strength team. Unsurprisingly, the result was a 5-0 drubbing: but very few fans were concerned. Turner's move paid off when a still fresh first team beat Southend 1-0 in a potentially tricky game at Roots Hall; playing 4-4-2 away from home, Eifion scored in the first minute as Pools then limited Southend to long-range efforts and half chances to secure the victory.

The following Tuesday saw Pools win 2-0 at home to Bristol Rovers; the first a spectacular goal from Arnison, who was filling in for the suspended Barron, and the second Eifion Williams' ninth goal of the season. A piece of Poolie history was made that night when Steven Istead came on as a sub towards the end to become the youngest player to appear for the first team, breaking the record previously held by John McGovern. Not content with that, he also managed to hit the post with a cross from the right - not bad for almost his first touch in professional football!

Overall it had been a good month for Pools; the lead at the top had stretched to five points, and Chris Turner was again unlucky not to get Manager of the Month when the award was instead given to Kidderminster's Ian Britton - apparently on the grounds that he did everything at Aggborough. And on the final day of the month we strengthened the squad by bringing left-sided player Brian Barry-Murphy in on loan from Preston. However, it wasn't all good news: Terry Yorath resigned as Manager of Sheffield Wednesday on the very same day, and almost as soon as the news was announced Turner was listed as one of the leading contenders. The Turner Era was almost over.