Never Under-State The Role Of The Fans

FIRST the good news: Dave Jones is having an impact at my club Hartlepool United. The last few games, particularly at home, have been a lot better. We also had a good win at Cambridge United a couple of weeks ago and were very unlucky at Blackpool last weekend.

It’s a hard job. The squad is very young indeed. As an example, we’ve got a young loanee goalkeeper, Joe Fryer, and a 17year-old right-back called Kenton Richardson who looks a lot younger than 17. I hope he can forgive me for writing that.

So it’s a young side, but they’re listening and learning. With reasonable fortune in the remaining games, we should be OK.

I know Dave and the chairman, Gary Coxall, have already sat down to talk about the budget for the summer and outlined potential targets. So, without being cocksure, we’re working on the basis that we will be a Football League club next season and, hopefully, it’s onwards and upwards.

Relate

There’s no question we had high hopes for where we’d finish this season – and a relegation battle isn’t what we intended.

But, for all sorts of reasons – players have left, we’ve had some bad injuries – things haven’t gone our way. But it’s about keeping our head above water this season and making sure there are two other sides below us come the final whistle.