By Albatross
February 13 2006

The long winless run is over, and Hartlepool United players and fans seem to have remembered how to smile. It may not have been a five goal thrashing, but Matty Robson's goal was worthy of winning any game and those three points have made a big difference to our league position. Everyone had a nice weekend then? For Poolies everywhere there are smiles back on faces and hope back in hearts, and the League Table suddenly looks a lot better.

Friday Night's performance showed Pools looking more like their old selves, and the encouraging thing is that there's more to come. There are players still to return, and Boyd still has fitness and sharpness to gain. It's important not to get too carried away with one result, but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel now and my feeling is that we're more likely to avoid the drop than not if we can keep things together.

Part of that confidence comes from seeing Paul Stephenson's post match interview on Pools World. Having gone for an adventurous system, when he found Chesterfield starting to get to grips with it as time went on he gave it ten minutes and then changed things around a bit - and it paid off with the move from a diamond to a more orthodox 4-4-2 giving the away side pause for thought. It was great to hear; he may be relatively inexperienced, but he showed considerable tactical nous.

Where he can Stepho is looking to fit square pegs into square holes and nowhere is that showing up more than with Matty Robson. Almost all his football for the first team to date seems to have come at full-back, and he's had his critics; now, in his more natural role as a winger, he's starting to shine.

So how long will Stepho be in charge? Rumours continue to abound about Chris Turner, with Rufus Brevett mentioned as a possible assistant; the club however have doen their best to make it clear no-one was lined up prior to Scott's departure and that they will be working to a process involving a call for applications rather than simply appointing someone. I wouldn't expect an announcement for a few days yet, but then again after Tranmere tomorrow night we haven't got a game until the 25th beacuase of Colchester's FA Cup involvement - I won't be surprised if we're hearing about the new boss early next week.

In the meantime Stepho carries on in charge, and I'm looking forward to our visit to Prenton Park tomorrow in a way I wasn't say three weeks ago. There will be a full preview tomorrow, but hopefully Stepho can make it three games unbeaten. After that, who knows?