By Albatross
November 21 2005

There's not many happy faces amongst Hartlepool United fans at the moment, and there's one target: Martin Scott. The next few games could make or break not only HUFC's season, but also his future as manger. With no Hit Single to provide a warm glow for Poolies this week, the defeat at Gillingham is leading to a lot of discontent. The mood is getting ugly, particularly towards Martin Scott, and you don't have to look too hard to find people saying he should go.

Gillingham were generally regarded as one of the worst teams to have played at the Vic for some time - certainly less competitive than Dagenham and Redbridge - and even though they were marginally stronger due to the return of a couple of players, to lose to them down at Priestfield has made the mumbles of discontent turn into a roar of disapproval. In some ways losing to Brentford was less of an issue - they are after all a side that's doing well, hard to play against, and it was felt that the Ref did us few favours. On Saturday there were no such excuses.

There are two sides to every argument of course. Despite that loss, Pools remain just four points behind a Playoff Place, and that's been accomplished without several players that would be expected to be in or around the first team. Barron, Robertson, and Porter are all yet to feature for the first team; Robson and Boyd have missed most of the season as well; James Brown, who was impressive in pre-season, will probably be lucky if he's ready to play before March or April. How much better, the argument runs, would Pools be doing if our first-choice forward line hadn't both had to go under the knife?

Our problems though can't be laid entirely at the door of injuries. Yes, there are key players missing; but we're supposed to have a strong squad that can still cope and pick up results. Up front for example we still have Eifion Williams, Jon Daly, Michael Proctor, a host of youth teamers and young pros, and others who can step into the breach such as Llewellyn. If those aren't considered the right option, the loan system has been widely used by some teams and although we'd be unlikely to get a star name at least Scott would be seen as trying to address the issue and fill the gap. Instead, we've had to wait until late November to see another forward arrive on loan. Last season when we were struggling with injuries, Cooper brought in Pouton and Woods on loan - and although they didn't exactly turn us into world-beaters, you at least felt that he was responding to the situation in a reasonable way.

The big issue really is that we're inconsistant. Four points from the playoffs, four points from relegation indicates how tight the division is - but for Pools fans, it in some ways makes matters worse as we feel we should be taking the division by the scruff of the neck. Martin Scott can talk all he likes about Pools having overachieved; we were promoted after four seasons of being one of the best sides in the division, and have been one of the best sides in our current division for two more - that's not over-achieving in the sense of a good one-off season or two, that's sustained success. And in any case, Scott himself said before the start of the season that Automatic Promotion was the target.

Is Scotty in danger of the sack? Attendances are suffering (no surprise when we have the second-worst home record in the division), the team isn't performing, the fans are restless. The ingredients are certainly there. So far this season though when questions have been asked, the team have pulled off a result or two to buy more time. Lose to Bradford and then fail to beat Tamworth in the FA Cup and it could be the final straw for IOR.