retired_jgirl87

September 2001:

Brian Clough had the team in good form as September began, but they needed the assistance of a red card as Doncaster came to Victoria Park and lead 2-0 early through Rigoglioso and Blundell. With Foster sent off on the half hour, Hartlepool was able to come back through Porter (2) before Clarke scored in the 87th minute for a 3-2 win.

A visit to Torquay produced no problems for the team as they swept to a three goal lead before conceding a consolation to Owen in the final minute. Before that Boyd, Woods and Porter had all found the net in the first half as the game ended 3-1 to the Pool.

The first top of the table clash of the season occurred on 12th September as 2nd placed Barnsley visited the league leaders Hartlepool. Brian selected the following team in his 2-3-3-2 formation:

Provett; Westwood, Jordan; Strachan, Tinkler, Robertson; Clarke, Woods, Humphries; Porter, Williams.

Hartlepool jumped out to a 2nd minute lead as Woods headed in Tinkler’s cross, but Nardiello equalised with a near-post shot in the 12th minute. Barnsley were probably shading things overall and Nardiello’s second goal, similar to his first, made it 1-2 in the 27th minute. Before Hartlepool could regain their composure Burgess headed in for 1-3 in the 30th minute. At half-time Brian informed his team that the performance wasn’t good for his growing reputation as a manager and that they needed to improve. Porter duly complied and pulled back a goal with a header after 54 minutes. With the score at 2-3 Hartlepool pressed for the equaliser for a lengthy period, but Burgess caught them out on a counter-attack and made it 2-4 in the 84th minute. The free-scoring Porter then buried Woods cross in the 87th minute for 3-4 before Chopra’s header in injury time made it 3-5 and sent Barnsley to the top of the Division 2 table.

After such a tough match it was a very tired team that went to Colchester three days later. Although Williams gave them the lead, Hartlepool surrendered to a Garcia equaliser and a Danns winner in a 2-1 loss.

A near capacity crowd of 7,600 fans was at Victoria Park for the visit of Premier League side Fulham in the League Cup 2nd Round. They left 90 minutes later in a very joyous mood after Woods rifled in the rebound from Porter’s blocked shot in the 64th minute to give Pool a fine 1-0 victory. Brian was very happy – it was the first of many giant-killing acts that he planned to pull off.

September was a busy month and still the games rolled on. Woods was proving to be an astute loan signing (by the previous manager, but don’t mention it in front of Brian) from Leeds and he scored again as he fired in a 43rd minute equaliser to cancel out Wellens 25th minute opener for Blackpool. That game at Victoria Park ended at 1-1.

For the final game of the month Hartlepool went to Huddersfield. Porter opened the scoring with a fine lob. Williams then supplied an unselfish assist as he headed back across goal for Porter to volley home to make it 2-0 at the break. Although Fowler scored a late consolation for Huddersfield it was not enough as Pool won 2-1 and finished the month in 5th place on the Division 2 table.

Brian made his first steps into the transfer market during September. Noting that he has only three out-and-out strikers and deciding that he needed some cover, Brian approached Ipswich and secured the season-long loan of 18 year old Craig Reid.

retired_confal2

Wish I had the know-how to put up tables half as impressive as yours

Enjoying the story. Keep it coming :thup:

mrsevans7177

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Spav:
_KH: So Brian, what’s your opinion of how things have gone so far?
BC: I’m happy Ken, very happy. Young _Martin Woods_ has been an inspired loan signing from Leeds by me.
KH: I think you’ll find that he was already here when you arrived, Brian.
BC: Oh, I suppose you could argue that. My management certainly has inspired him though and he has been bossing the midfield for us.
KH: The antipodean _Joel Porter_ has certainly been amongst the goals, hasn’t he?
BC: Ken, I think you’ll find that Porter is an Australian. But yes, his goals have been vital.
KH: And your tactics, Brian? What is that number sequence again?
BC: _2-3-3-2_, Ken. Imagine the sidelines as two pieces of bread and our players as the top quality ham in the middle. Well, what I’ve done is remove those useless pieces of cheese that usually sit either side of the ham. It’s now a much better sandwich as a result.
KH: So you don’t like cheese then? Is that what you are saying?
BC: It’s a bit too much for your limited mind to take in, Ken. Just go and get me a cup of tea please, there’s a good fellow._
[QUOTE]


Classic stuff, specially the antipodean bit, classic

Early season looks pretty good, KUTGW

retired_jgirl87

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by OMDave:
Wish I had the know-how to put up tables half as impressive as yours

Enjoying the story. Keep it coming :thup: <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Cheers OMDave.

CM01/02 always had the best-looking tables in my opinion. There's nothing special to what I have done, just saved all the stats from the competition/table screen to a text file and removed the lines that didn't have Hartlepool players on them, then cut and pasted straight into the thread with the [ CODE ] function.

retired_jgirl87

October 2001:

The month started off with the visit of 3rd placed Hull and Porter scored a 59th minute header before Keane worked his way through the centre of the Hartlepool defence to equalise for Hull after 72 minutes. The game ended in a 1-1 draw that was probably fair to both teams.

The next game at Peterborough saw the debut of loan signing Craig Reid. Reid had an immediate impact as he headed Pool into a 21st minute lead. Owen equalised for the home team on the half hour, but Humphreys rifled in a 20 yarder in the 68th minute and Reid scored his second with a fine volley in the 70th minute. To make his debut even more memorable Reid was then sent off after he pushed Burton to the ground. Even with ten men Pool were able to take it to 4-1 when Porter drove in the rebound from McCann’s shot 5 minutes from the end.

If the team was becoming complacent about their high position, then the visit of the 20th placed MK Dons woke them up. Porter scored his usual goal to open proceedings, but Tapp and Small replied in the second half to inflict a 2-1 home defeat on the high-flying Hartlepool. Brian was not happy with that performance and he went into a rage that would have had the boot-kicking Sir Alex Ferguson impressed. It just wasn’t good for his burgeoning reputation to have sloppy home defeats like that. There would be massive changes, he threatened, although with the size of the Hartlepool squad as it was, no-one dared ask where he was going to get these “new” players from.

Bournemouth took the brunt of the backlash from the players in the next game as Hartlepool visited them. A Reid hat-trick and a beautiful lob by Porter gave Pool a 4-0 win with all of the goals coming in the first half.

Lowly Walsall must have been worried about what sort of reception they would receive when they visited Victoria Park in late October. Porter was injured early in the match and Williams was his replacement. It made little difference as Williams open the scoring with a penalty before Reid and Woods pushed it out to 3-0. Corica scored for Walsall early in the second half that prompted a brief rally, but Williams scored again. A second penalty to Williams gave him a hat-trick and registered a 5-1 win for Hartlepool.

A resolute Bradford denied Hartlepool another win with a 0-0 draw at Valley Parade and Premier Division Blackburn Rovers were too good for Brian’s team as they won 2-0 in the 3rd Round of the League Cup at Ewood Park. Skipper Flitcroft got both of Blackburn’s goals as the month of October ended on a disappointing note.

At the end of the month Hartlepool received their first award for what had been a great start to the season when Joel Porter was named player of the month for Division 2. However the midfield lost it’s driving force when the loan period of Martin Woods came to an end and he returned to Leeds United. It had been a high-quality spell as the 18 year old had played 18 games, scoring 7 times and providing 6 assists as he racked up a 7.67 game rating average.

retired_jgirl87

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">********************************************* ************************************************** * English Second Division - Wednesday 31st October 2001********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Blackpool 16 6 1 1 16 6 4 3 1 16 10 34 2nd HARTLEPOOL 16 4 2 2 21 15 5 1 2 17 7 30 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3rd Hull 16 7 1 0 24 9 2 2 4 6 10 30 4th Stockport 16 7 0 1 22 11 1 4 3 13 16 28 5th Barnsley 16 4 3 1 17 10 4 1 3 14 14 28 6th Doncaster 16 3 5 0 16 12 4 1 3 13 13 27 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7th Port Vale 16 5 3 0 15 8 2 2 4 13 15 26 8th Bristol City 16 5 2 1 12 7 2 3 3 11 12 26 9th Colchester 16 6 1 1 15 7 1 3 4 5 14 25 10th Swindon 16 5 3 0 22 12 1 3 4 15 22 24 11th Tranmere 16 2 4 2 14 14 3 4 1 15 11 23 12th Torquay 16 4 2 2 13 12 2 3 3 10 13 23 13th Luton 16 4 2 2 14 7 1 4 3 3 6 21 14th Bournemouth 16 2 4 2 7 10 2 4 2 11 14 20 15th Bradford 16 2 3 3 6 8 2 4 2 8 7 19 16th MK Dons 16 3 4 1 12 7 1 2 5 7 13 18 17th Wrexham 16 2 4 2 13 11 2 2 4 12 17 18 18th Sheff Wed 16 4 2 2 13 8 0 3 5 10 19 17 19th Brentford 16 1 3 4 14 17 3 1 4 14 18 16 20th Chesterfield 16 1 4 3 10 13 2 2 4 10 13 15 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------21st Huddersfield 16 3 3 2 13 11 0 2 6 9 20 14 22nd Peterborough 16 2 2 4 7 13 0 3 5 11 18 11 23rd Oldham 16 2 1 5 14 17 0 3 5 11 21 10 24th Walsall 16 1 4 3 11 13 0 3 5 4 18 10 ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Goals============================================= ================================================== =Pos Player Club Apps Gls-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Joel Porter Hartlepool 15 14 18th Craig Reid Hartlepool 4 (1) 6 26th Martin Woods Hartlepool 16 6 27th Eifion Williams Hartlepool 9 (1) 5 ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Assists=========================================== ================================================== ===Pos Player Club Apps Asts-------------------------------------------------------------------------9th Martin Woods Hartlepool 16 6 13th Hugh Robertson Hartlepool 15 5 ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Average Rating============================================ ================================================== ==Pos Player Club Apps Av R-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Joel Porter Hartlepool 15 8.20 2nd Eifion Williams Hartlepool 9 (1) 8.00 12th Martin Woods Hartlepool 16 7.69 26th Gavin Strachan Hartlepool 16 7.50 ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Man of Match============================================= ================================================== =Pos Player Club Apps MoM-------------------------------------------------------------------------12th Joel Porter Hartlepool 15 3 15th Martin Woods Hartlepool 16 3 17th Eifion Williams Hartlepool 9 (1) 2 </pre>

retired_jgirl87

November 2001:

If October had been busy in terms of the number of games played, then November was downright pedestrian. Just four Saturday games were on offer and the first was a visit to Wrexham. Reid had settled into the team nicely and he opened the scoring whilst McCann scored the second in a rare start on the left of midfield as Humphreys played in the middle in place of the departed Woods. Hartlepool won the match comfortably by 2-0.

Having had to send Martin Woods back to Leeds United, Brian then approached the Yorkshire club again, this time for the season-long loan of Jamie McMaster. The 21 year old Australian was on the fringe of the first team squad at Leeds, but they were prepared to let him go to Hartlepool for the remainder of the season.

Another road trip to was made to play Port Vale away and things looked good as Reid scored yet again. McMaster crashed in a volley on his debut before Paynter pulled one back on the stroke of half-time to leave Hartlepool 2-1 in front. A harsh penalty decision against keeper Provett gave Paynter the chance to equalise from the spot before Reid struck yet again with a hopeful long range effort. Birchall made it 3-3 with ten minutes to go and a ding-dong, end-to-end struggle erupted for the three points on offer. It was Port Vale who game out on top as Cummins grabbed an 88th minute winner in a 4-3 victory for the Stoke-based team.

The 1st Round of the FA Cup was next and a trip to play non-league Barrow AFC was made. Joel Porter had been out all of November with strained knee ligaments, but he returned for this game. Brian was looking forward to the pairing of Porter and Reid up front, but Reid was injured early and replaced by Williams. A hat-trick to Porter helped him celebrate his return to the team and substitute Istead score a late goal as Hartlepool cruised through to the next round with a 4-0 win.

Finally on the last Saturday of November the team was able to enjoy a match in front of their home fans for the first time in the month. Luton were the visitors and goals by Porter and Humphreys sent them home with nothing to show for their visit to Victoria Park except a 2-0 defeat

Chairman Ken Hodcroft was delighted with the team’s second placing in Division 2 at the end of the November. Maybe Brian was right – they really did have a promotion-winning squad on their hands. Ken had astutely avoided Brian during the month. Whenever they spoke Ken always felt like he was some sort of ignoramus in the presence of Brian. This was very odd because in all dealings with other people in relation to the running of the club, Ken was clearly the man in control. However their paths crossed after the Luton match at Ken warily approached Brian to offer his congratulations on the team’s performance.

KH: Brian, super performances by the team, well done.
BC: Thanks Ken. The old 2-3-3-2 system is certainly grinding out the results.

Ken was slightly worried already, but he knew about the 2-3-3-2 formation, so he felt safe in continuing.

KH: Ah yes, the ham sandwich tactic. Much better without all that cheese in there, eh Brian?
BC: Seeing as you’re using my metaphor there Ken, I’d have to agree with you.

Ken suddenly felt more at ease and decided to continue the “sandwich tone” of the conversation.

KH: So Brian, have you ever thought of pepping up the ham sandwich with a little bit of “dressing”, say some mustard or a bit of Branston pickle?
BC: Ken, are you suggesting that I should sign Sheffield Wednesday’s Guy Branston? We don’t need any extra defenders, you know.
KH: No Brian, it was just an extension of the “sandwich” metaphor.
BC: What, don’t you think the team is “cutting the mustard”? We need some further playing personnel in your opinion, do we?

Ken was suddenly quite confused. He really thought the he had been on top of this conversation. He dropped his head and looked sheepishly at his high-quality leather shoes instead.

BC: Look Ken, I’m the first team manager and I’ll look after the playing side of things. You just look after the catering, especially as you’re so fond of sandwiches, there’s a good chap. Now run along and get me a pork pie, will you? All this talk of food has made me quite hungry.

Ken nodded and headed off towards the kitchen. As usual he felt strangely compelled to do whatever Brian told him.

retired_jgirl87

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">********************************************* ************************************************** * English Second Division - Friday 30th November 2001********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Blackpool 20 8 1 2 23 12 5 3 1 17 10 43 2nd HARTLEPOOL 20 5 2 2 23 15 7 1 3 24 12 39 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3rd Doncaster 20 5 5 0 20 13 6 1 3 18 15 39 4th Barnsley 20 6 3 1 23 12 5 1 4 17 17 37 5th Port Vale 20 6 3 1 20 14 4 2 4 20 17 35 6th Stockport 20 8 0 2 25 14 2 4 4 14 17 34 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7th Hull 20 8 1 1 28 13 2 2 6 8 14 33 8th Bristol City 20 6 3 1 16 8 3 3 4 14 15 33 9th Tranmere 20 3 5 2 21 19 4 5 1 21 14 31 10th Luton 20 6 2 2 19 9 1 4 5 4 11 27 11th Bradford 20 4 3 3 10 9 2 5 3 11 13 26 12th Colchester 20 6 1 4 17 12 1 4 4 7 16 26 13th Bournemouth 20 3 4 3 10 13 3 4 3 14 19 26 14th Torquay 20 4 4 2 17 16 2 3 5 11 19 25 15th Sheff Wed 20 5 2 3 17 10 1 4 5 14 22 24 16th Swindon 20 5 3 2 23 15 1 3 6 18 28 24 17th Wrexham 20 2 4 3 13 13 4 2 5 17 20 24 18th MK Dons 20 4 4 2 13 10 2 2 6 10 16 24 19th Chesterfield 20 2 4 4 12 15 4 2 4 12 13 24 20th Brentford 20 2 3 5 17 19 3 1 6 16 24 19 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------21st Walsall 20 1 6 3 16 18 1 4 5 7 20 16 22nd Huddersfield 20 3 3 4 14 15 0 3 7 11 24 15 23rd Peterborough 20 3 2 5 10 16 0 4 6 13 22 15 24th Oldham 20 2 2 6 17 22 0 3 7 14 26 11 ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Goals============================================= ================================================== =Pos Player Club Apps Gls-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Joel Porter Hartlepool 17 16 13th Craig Reid Hartlepool 7 (1) 9 ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Assists=========================================== ================================================== ===Pos Player Club Apps Asts-------------------------------------------------------------------------10th Hugh Robertson Hartlepool 19 6 28th Eifion Williams Hartlepool 12 (1) 4 30th Mark Tinkler Hartlepool 18 4 ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Average Rating============================================ ================================================== ==Pos Player Club Apps Av R-------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Joel Porter Hartlepool 17 8.18 2nd Eifion Williams Hartlepool 12 (1) 7.92 21st Gavin Strachan Hartlepool 20 7.60 30th Ritchie Humphreys Hartlepool 19 7.47 ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Man of Match============================================= ================================================== =Pos Player Club Apps MoM-------------------------------------------------------------------------7th Joel Porter Hartlepool 17 4 22nd Eifion Williams Hartlepool 12 (1) 2 </pre>

retired_embartl

ham sandwiches, cheese and pickle?

Good start so far, promotion looks a definite possibility

retired_jgirl87

Thanks BoN, still hanging in there at the top as you'll see.

------------------------------------------------

December 2001:

With the mid point of the season arriving, both Brian and Ken were very happy to see the team in the play-off positions. A trip to Sheffield Wednesday produced three points as the Australians did the scoring. McMaster cancelled out Hamshaw’s early opener and Porter clinched the 2-1 victory with a second half header for his 20th goal in all competitions so far this season.

A trip to Wales for the 2nd Round of the FA Cup gave Hartlepool a match against Newport. The non-leaguers had no answer to Brian’s high-flying Division 2 side and a 4-0 win was achieved through the goals of Porter, McMaster (2) and Clarke.

Next up was another cup competition – the Vans Trophy. Brian had decided that this was a nonsense tournament and resolved to put all his reserves out on the park for the visit to Macclesfield. When Jones and Tipton put the home team 2-0 up it looked like the fringe players wouldn’t be able to cope, but a quick double to Williams bought them level. Suddenly players who been sitting on the sidelines for most of the season were now playing out of their skin. Ross powered in a header for his first ever goal and Robson followed likewise with a cracking long range effort. It was 4-2 to Pool at the break and Istead and a third goal for Williams made it 6-2 before Tipton scored in the last minute for a final 6-3 score-line.

It was then off to Merseyside for a tricky league match against Tranmere. Reid smashed in Porter’s lovely pass to get Hartlepool off on the right foot, but then they lost both their attacking midfielders as McMaster and McCann went off injured. Tranmere came storming back and a Jones header and a Whitmore tap-in had them leading 2-1 early in the second half. They maintained that lead until the 89th minute when substitute Robson followed up his mid-week cup goal with an even better effort – a 35 yard rocket that left Howarth grasping at fresh air. An entertaining game finished 2-2.

A home game with fellow promotion hopefuls Stockport was next on the agenda. A tight first half was scoreless, but then the visitors got some luck as both Beckett and Jackman scored via deflections that gave Provett no chance. Brian threw everybody forward for the last 20 minutes and was rewarded when Strachan reduced the deficit with a skidding low shot. Injury-time was just beginning as Hartlepool’s pressure finally earned them an equaliser at 2-2. The scorer was Stephenson, the club’s “old man” having a rare substitute appearance on this day.

The Boxing Day fixture saw Bristol City visit Victoria Park and the players gave Brian a lovely Christmas present – a 5-0 win. McMaster (2), Porter (2) and Williams all scored in a second half display that had the local fans drooling into their Bovril.

The final match of 2001 was a road trip to Doncaster, another team with promotion aspirations. The new deadly duo of Porter and Reid set to work and did their thing. Robson, starting in place of McCann after his fine substitute performances, set up Reid for a 16th minute header to put Pool 1-0 up. Robson then went down the left wing and drove over a low cross that Porter rifled in for 2-0 in the 33rd minute. Although McIndoe pulled one back for Doncaster with a cracking left foot volley after 74 minutes, it was Hartlepool who hung on for a 2-1 win. That result consolidated the team’s position in second place behind league leaders Blackpool.