By Albatross
April 17 2006

As the John Laurie would have said in Dad's Army, "We're all doomed!" Two bad results over the Easter weekend leave the chances of Hartlepool United avoiding relegation somewhere between slim and non-existant. It's been a cruel Easter for Hartlepool United - from two possibly winnable games we've taken nothing, and far from the resurrection we'd hoped for we're now looking like we're dead and buried. Maybe it isn't mathematically certain just yet, but we need to earn five points more than Yeovil or six more than Rotherham over the next three games and hope other results go our way.

Not totally irretrievable? No, but when you consider our next two games are against an on-form Nottingham Forest (currently 6th having won six on the bounce) and at Brentford (currently in 3rd and in the hunt for an automatic promotion place) you have to wonder if we'll get one point - and we need all of them. Given that we're now on a run of no win in eight games, the odds on us surviving are verging on astronomical - in fact, with Yeovil at home to Gillingham next weekend and Rotherham at home to Scunthorpe, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that Saturday's game will be the final nail in the coffin.

I'm saddened, but also highly annoyed. This time last season we were looking to secure our playoff place for the second season running; now, it's more a question of will we avoid the wooden spoon. It's all gone dramatically wrong, and the hard work of the previous six years to turn us from a team that regularly flirted with going out of the league to one that was challenging for a place in Division 1 has been thrown away. We've had the agony and ecstacy of the Playoff Final; right now that looks more like twelve years ago than twelve months. The 17,000 that followed us to Cardiff dwarfed our regular following; any hope of converting any of the part-timers has vanished for the forseeable future. We had the best opportunity to increase our fanbase in the history of the club, and have well and truly blown it.

Excuses will no doubt be sought, fingers will be pointed, and the person most of them will be pointed at will be Martin Scott. Should he decide to claim unfair dismissal, it's tempting to say that Pools could just submit the League Tables for 2004/5 and 2005/6 as evidence; that alone would surely be enough to get the case thrown out. Going into this campaign, we were told we had the strongest squad (not just team, but squad) in the club's history; players with higher division experience and plenty of years left in the legs were brought in, presumably not on peanuts for wages either; the only major loss team-wise was Chris Westwood. Scott himself was saying that the aim was Automatic Promotion. The many Poolies that placed their bets on the back of his confidence will probably feel like demanding their lost stakes from him.

Scott may not be the only factor, but he's been by far the biggest one in my opinion. He knew the players well having been assistant for the previous two years; he was given backing by the board to go out and make acquisitions; this was his team, playing the way he wanted, and we've gone from heroes to zeroes while he was in charge.

Injuries will no doubt be cited by some as a factor, and there's no doubt that we've been blighted by problems in some key areas. The defence has done it's part mostly - ten teams have conceded more goals than us - but the lack of firepower has cost us dearly. Losing the two top scorers from last year for much of the season was bound to have an effect. On the other hand, these days all successful clubs know that this is a squad game, and you need to have the players coming in to at least keep things ticking over. Maybe promotion was out of the question without the main pairing - but should even mid-table safety have been out of reach? Scott brought in Proctor, who has grabbed a total of six goals, spent long periods on the sidelines, and often disappointed for the first team, Llewellyn, whose only goal so far is a penalty in the Tamworth debacle, and a host of inexperienced loan players. In total nine recognised forwards played up front for Scott this season, not including others such as midfielders Istead and Bullock that had brief spells there. More than half of them were brought in by Scott. Meanwhile, goals have dried up from the midfield too and we're the lowest scorers in the division.

It's hard to blame anyone other than Scott, but there is some responsibility too on IOR and Ken Hodcroft. Not so much for appointing Scott - he was after all the logical choice at the end of last season and did enough in the playoff campaign to suggest he was worth a try - but for not getting rid of him sooner. It didn't take long for doubts to be raised about Scott, and by the poor defeat at home to Yeovil alarm bells were already ringing. By the time of our surrender to Tamworth in the FA Cup, it seemed difficult to see Scott turning it around; yet it wasn't until after the defeat against Blackpool and the much-rumoured afters in the Dressing Room almost two months later that he was finally relieved of his duties. By that point it was probably already too late - the transfer window was about to slam shut, and only for a brief spell under Paul Stephenson did we look likely to pull clear. Leaving an inexperienced man in charge was a risk, but then again bringing in Chris Turner as an advisor of sorts doesn't seem to have made much difference either. Add in a perceived over-reaction to those making peaceful protests calling for Scott's departure and the whole thing's been something of a PR disaster with many fans feeling somewhat alienated.

So barring a miracle it's back to square one for Pools next season. Back to the division it took us three playoff seasons and on automatic promotion to get out of, back after just three seasons away just as it was when we were last relegated in 1993/4. About the only positive I can come up with is that at least it's not so long a trip to get to Accrington as it is to Brighton. Who will Ken Hodcroft turn to now?