Hartlepool United 1 (Masoud 10) Norwich City 0
Another excellent home performance as their keeper got the man of the match award and we kept their £14m striker van Wolfswinkel quiet!!
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Leeds United 1 (Takyi 39) Hartlepool United 2 (Masoud 43, Schwartz 66)
AN AWAY WIN!!!!!! Fantastic - although they had a late equaliser disallowed.
Not many games this month which was a blessing in disguise as it allowed my players longer breaks inbetween matches and they responded by winning 3 out of 4 and we finish the month top of the table!!
God knows where we will end up although if we can stay in touch until January I should be able to get money to spend as I can change my seasons objectives.
I loaned out backup players Etheridge, Hurst and Sandaza this month.
Newcastle United 0 Hartlepool United 1 (Jarju 6)
Going into this game I thought I would be happy with a 6-0 thrashing (being a Newcastle fan) but in the end as I type this - (immediately after the match as I do my post as I play each match) I am overjoyed!!!!
They have a lot of **** but still boast the likes of Papiss Cisse, Cheick Tiote, Tom Ince, Darren Bent and Tim Krul.
Brentford are rock bottom and going down so I expected a win. After all it was a home game!!!
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Hartlepool United 1 (Jarju 67) Bolton Wanderers 0
Apparently we were the favourites for this game - shows how many strides we have taken forward.
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Charlton Athletic 1 (Jackson 90) Hartlepool United 0
This was heartbreaking as we were by far the better team against a pretty poor Charlton side but they struck in stoppage time to win it. We have yet to draw a game this season amazingly - 22 games in.
This was a great win as we were missing several players and had to put out a very young side. Franks got injured and is the next player to be out for 3 months!
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Leicester City 2 (Nugent 13, Hunt 49) Hartlepool United 2 (Poole 10, Jarju 50)
Our first draw and it was as good as a victory as I was missing nearly a dozen players here and played people who had fitness levels at 81-83%
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Hartlepool United 2 (James 59, Miller 84) Birmingham City 0
I have noticed that although our rented stadium at Darlington has a capacity of 25,000 we still only get an average attendance as if we were playing at Victoria Park..............
A fantastic month in where we got an excellent win away to Newcastle and we even managed to draw a game and while our only defeat was a sore one to take I cant complain too much. We are exactly halfway through the league campaign and are 14pts clear of 7th place which is nice.
I have just noticed that my chairman will listen to offers. Hopefully somebody with a bit of cash will come in!!!
A great win. We had Fahey sent-off in the first half and Whelan had a goal disallowed too!
-- Hartlepool United 1 (James 90)
Ipswich Town 0
A bit different to our 5-0 away win earlier in the season!
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Bradford City 1 (Wells 3)
Hartlepool United 2 (Djurovski 24, 84)
Bradford are still rock bottom but they made life difficult for us here.
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Hartlepool United 2 (Lingard 21pen, 37pen)
Sheffield Wednesday 0
I thought we would drop our first points at home here as they are doing well and we had a backup side out but they gifted us 2 pens and 3pts.
Another great month with 6 wins out of 7 as we are still top of the table and looking good. We are 20pts clear of 7th place so a play-off position will be the minimum position we will finish.
I am yet to find out if any funds will become available with the change of expectations for the season but hopefully I will get a bit of cash to spend. I need a major overhaul of the current squad if we do make it to the promised land!!!
Our next game is in the FA Cup at home to Premiership side Wigan Athletic.
We got the win and a couple of goals so it wasnt too bad. We had summat like 15 shots on target so it could have been the expected 6-7 goal winning margin.
FA Cup 3rd Round Hartlepool United 2 (Djurovski 48, James 89) Wigan Athletic 1 (Fortune 36)
For some reason we played this game on Wednesday, a few days after everyone else played. A great win against Premiership opposition although there team was pretty average.
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Hartlepool United 2 (Schwartz 36, Whelan 54) Nottingham Forest 1 (Andre Moritz 20)
This was revenge for the defeat earlier in the season. They were the better team but as usual we took our chances.
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West Bromwich Albion 2 (Puncheon 38, Tamas 70) Hartlepool United 0
Meh
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Huddersfield Town 1 (Vaughan 34) Hartlepool United 2 (James 19, Lingard 25)
Kevin Thomson got injured and is out for 3-4 months.........
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FA Cup 4th Round Hartlepool United 2 (Djurovski 24, 58pen)
Ipswich Town 1 (Taylor 90)
Ipswich must hate us as thats 3 wins against them this season.
On the pitch everything was pretty much perfect but off it I was left extremely frustrated with my transfer dealings. I was only given an extra £5K a week on my wage bill for promoting my expectations.
So with that in mind I went to create some finances and promptly sold Keith Fahey for £575K and Neil Etheridge for £22K. I also loaned out Sandaza, Omozusi and Poole.
So to fill my squad I tried to bring in Damian Martinez, Siarhey Kisliak and Faouzi Aaish and they all failed to get work permits!!! I was and still am raging. All 3 would be part of my squad should we get promoted.
CRAZZINESS! Finally caught up, last post I read was the one I commented on about winning League 2! Since then you have won League 1 and sit top of the Championship! Great effort as always. Your story's are always great, keep it up.
FEBRUARY
Hartlepool United 2 (Masoud 30, Lingard 76)
Derby County 0
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FA Cup 5th Round
Arsenal 3 (Wilshere 2, Hearn 42, Oxlade-Chamberlain 75) Hartlepool United 1 (James 53)
They played their first choice defence (including Bellusci and Criscito) plus Wilshere but the rest were youngsters. We did ok though.
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Hartlepool United 2 (James 9, Reach og84) Middlesbrough 1 (Reach 74)
YES!!!!!! Boro remain in 3rd as we move 11pts clear of them.
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Burnley 0 Hartlepool United 1 (James 70)
This game makes me think we are destined to win the title. We had 1 shot on target which resulted in a goal and moments later my debutant Al-Kamali scored an own goal but it was disallowed!
Lots of stories this month. On the park we won all 3 league games to move 10pts clear with a game in hand to pretty much set us up for the title. We also battled away against Arsenal in the FA Cup.
Most of the news was off the field. I managed to strengthen my side by signing a new centre-half in the shape of U.A.E. international Hamdan Al-Kamali on a free. For the rest of the season he will play CB with Baldwin and Schwartz will play in midfield. View attachment 379106
Also we are in the process of a board takeover. I fully welcome that if the potential new owners give me a bit more cash to spend!!
Finally we moved back to Victoria Park after the work on the ground was finished.
My beloved Newcastle came knocking on my door offering me the chance to lead them back into the Premiership. Sorely tempting. Decent budget, decent players, plus Mike Ashley aint there.............
MARCH
Norwich City 1 (Hooper 20)
Hartlepool United 0
They had over 20 shots on goal and dominated until the last 10min when we bombarded them and could have equalised a few times.
Our first home game of the season which we dont win and only our 2nd draw of the season!
-- Hartlepool United 2 (Brady 68, Lingard 90pen)
Leeds United 1 (Takyi 12)
This win secures our place in the play-offs apparently
--
LINEUPS[TABLE="width: 500"]
[TR]
[TD]OPP [/TD]
[TD]RES [/TD]
[TD]GK [/TD]
[TD]RB [/TD]
[TD]CB [/TD]
[TD]CB [/TD]
[TD]LB [/TD]
[TD]CM [/TD]
[TD]CM [/TD]
[TD]AMR [/TD]
[TD]AML [/TD]
[TD]AMC [/TD]
[TD]ST [/TD]
[TD]SUBS[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Norw[/TD]
[TD]0-1[/TD]
[TD]Flinders[/TD]
[TD]Clarke[/TD]
[TD]Baldwin [/TD]
[TD]Schwartz*[/TD]
[TD]Bates[/TD]
[TD]Djurovski[/TD]
[TD]Hetherington[/TD]
[TD]Lingard[/TD]
[TD]Whelan[/TD]
[TD]Masoud[/TD]
[TD]James[/TD]
[TD]Mulconroy[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Cry P[/TD]
[TD]1-1[/TD]
[TD]Flinders[/TD]
[TD]Clarke[/TD]
[TD]Baldwin*[/TD]
[TD]Al-Kamali[/TD]
[TD]Vangjeli[/TD]
[TD]Djurovski[/TD]
[TD]Schwartz[/TD]
[TD]Lingard[/TD]
[TD]Whelan[/TD]
[TD]Masoud[/TD]
[TD]James[/TD]
[TD]Mulconroy, Brady, Hetherington[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Leeds[/TD]
[TD]2-1 [/TD]
[TD]Flinders[/TD]
[TD]Hutchinson [/TD]
[TD]Baldwin[/TD]
[TD]Al-Kamali[/TD]
[TD]Holden[/TD]
[TD]Hetherington [/TD]
[TD]Schwartz [/TD]
[TD]Lingard [/TD]
[TD]Whelan [/TD]
[TD]Masoud[/TD]
[TD]James [/TD]
[TD]Brady, Clough, Bates [/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
SETH SCHWARTZ View attachment 379118
doesnt really deserve it for the 3 games but he has been excellent for the past 2 seasons
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SUMMARY
So as you can see I stayed put! I actually got offered the Blackburn Rovers job too.
Not much to write about regarding Hartlepool!!! Only 3 games played which produced mixed results and a play-off position.
The youth intake happened and we got 2 decent prospects in. Neither will feature in the first team regularly straight away but they will get some minutes no doubt. View attachment 379120View attachment 379121