By Albatross
February 8 2006

A week after the initial announcement of his suspension, Hartlepool United and Martin Scott have finally parted company. As usual, both sides are remaining tight-lipped about the reasons why. The waiting has been going on really since rumours started circulating about possible incidents in the Dressing Room following the Blackpool defeat; now finally the shoe has dropped and it's confirmed that Martin Scott will no longer be involved with the first team and will instead leave Pools.

It's a safe bet that IOR will not reveal the details behind Martin Scott's departure from HUFC - in their time at the club, they have only once made clear the reasons why and that was when Chris Turner moved on to Sheffield Wednesday. Newell and Cooper both left unexpectedly and for reasons that the club has still never said anything about. The statement from the club on the Official Website includes a statement from Scott, and ends with the expected comment that neither side will be saying anything more, now or in the future.

Not that it has stopped speculation, and although the way the season has gone is reason enough there are bound to be rumours circulating. While the initial statement when Scott was suspended talked about an investigation into incidents in and around the dressing room, there's nothing I am prepared to present as unequivocal fact. Rumours have since surfaced of further incidents in Durham at the weekend, but once again this remains unconfirmed at the time of writing and I'm not about to claim otherwise.

It's enough for me that he's gone, and I don't see much point in twisting the knife further. While the step up may have been too much at this time, Scott has done good work at Pools in other roles which should be acknowledged - his stewardship of the youth team has provided Pools with a number of players for the first team in the last couple of seasons especially, and he was of course Assistant Manager to Cooper during two seasons where we punched well above our weight and left supposedly more illustrious names trailing in our wake.

Now it's time to look to the future, and our chances of avoiding relegation. For the moment it remains Paul Stephenson in charge, which raises questions about Steve Agnew's future role. There remains much talk of Chris Turner coming back at least in the short term, and other names are also being mooted - until the club decides what to do next though, we'll just have to wait - and get behind Stepho and the lads as we try and pull ourselves clear of the trouble we're now in.