County 1 Hartlepool 1
County cocked up, Tranmere cocked up, even the football gods cocked up giving us the team with the worst allocation in the play-offs
Tuesday 9 May 2023
Well, that was a bit of a damp squib, wasn’t it? I can’t think of much else to say this afternoon so I’m going to pass you straight over to our very own Mozzer, and Joe Ramage from the Hartlepool Mail.
Before I do, however, I must say a big thank you to Kate O’Brien Art, today’s sponsor. Kate produces some fantastic County items, as well as lots of other hand-painted distinctive artwork and gifts featuring scenes around Stockport and beyond. Go and check out her website.
Des Junior
Yesterday’s match in one word:
Mozzer - Expected.
Joe - Eventful.
Pre-match thoughts:
Mozzer - That this wouldn’t turn out to be as easy as some people were assuming and that even if we won, events elsewhere would render it largely meaningless.
Joe - I think, from a Hartlepool perspective, it was a case of just wanting the game and the season over whilst keeping the score respectable. There was also that element of intrigue surrounding Dave Challinor and his former club after the comments made about him by the Hartlepool chairman recently. There was then, of course, the interest in whether or not Stockport would achieve promotion. So even though there wasn’t a lot for Hartlepool to play for it was still a fixture with plenty of subplots which is all you can ask for on the final day, I suppose.
Post-match thoughts:
Mozzer - Glad Northampton won, because if they hadn’t I’d have been raging at not taking advantage. I confess I can’t even get worked up about the farce around the disallowed goal. I know things might have been different if we’d known Northampton were losing/drawing, but we just lacked that extra bit of urgency we needed. Obviously we still should have won despite being well below our best and it was annoying not to do that, just to help with momentum going into the play-offs. We’ll have to hope it acts better as a wake-up call.
Joe - Relief, for Hartlepool supporters at least, that the season is over. It’s been one to forget from the off. There was slight satisfaction that they were able to sign off with a decent result and a goal to celebrate for those who travelled followed by a sense of “what next?” as players stood and applauded the fans. Who will be there next season? How will the summer shape up? It’s an important period for the club if they are to avoid another lengthy hiatus from the Football League.
Verdict on County:
Mozzer - As above: not good enough really. We shouldn’t be bemoaning a penalty miss and a goalkeeper who made three or four quality saves when called upon. They were mostly sub-average to mediocre throughout and it’s not Billy Big Balls to think that if you want promotion you should be beating teams like that. Their goal was a catalogue of errors, although I’m less bothered about the chance they should have put away towards the end of the 90 minutes, because we were starting to throw caution to the wind a bit by then.
Joe - They were dominant in the first half and you could see the traits of Challinor’s Hartlepool side from two years ago in building up play and utilising the wings. Second half felt like they dropped off a little, albeit they still created a good number of opportunities. You can see that they’re a good side at this level, however.
Verdict on Hartlepool:
Mozzer - Better than Rochdale; worse than Crawley. So the table says that’s about right. They never really threatened us for any period of time and we were frustrated more by our own inabilities than by anything they did, other than their keeper. It was an excellent strike for the goal but, as with Salford’s equaliser, them having the ball there and in that much space was largely the result of criminal football from us.
Joe - It was night and day from when the two sides met in December as Hartlepool, at least, put up a bit of a fight. Although they gave up plenty of chances, and struggled from set pieces, I thought they did quite well considering the circumstances of the fixture, particularly in the second half when they had a bit more of a go.
Top Hatter:
Mozzer - Really struggling here because I’m not sure anyone stood out. It wasn’t that anyone was especially poor, it’s just no one rose above the mediocrity to grab the game by the scruff of the neck or produce a single moment of magic to swing it. I thought Camps was having a decent game, but just as I was about to say that to someone, he became the first player heavily culpable for their equaliser, though I’m not going to bring the second penalty into this. I suppose I was surprised to see Croasdale come off, because I thought he was going about his business of mopping up and passing on that is so important to us, so on that basis I’ll plump for him.
Joe - Chris Hussey and Kyle Knoyle were effective in those wide areas and Fraser Horsfall caused plenty of problems from set plays.
Top Monkey Hanger:
Mozzer - Killip. On most other days we’d probably have scored another couple, despite ourselves. From a Hartlepool perspective, he’s the reason they got a point.
Joe - Ben Killip. Outstanding display. The save to deny Paddy Madden was superb and, of course, the penalty stop at the end.
Atmosphere:
Mozzer - We know the fans can be loads better than we were yesterday. I know sometimes you need something to happen in a game to lift things and we had the added issue of knowing from very early on that things weren’t going our way elsewhere. Even so, it was pretty disappointing stuff. We had a bit of verbal to-ing and fro-ing on the Pop Side with their youth element, but all harmless stuff, even if they need to work on their repertoire. They made a bit of noise at times, but I was expecting more from them noise-wise as well, to be honest. Fancy dress will never be acceptable at football, though. If the Tories want to do one more outrageous, draconian thing before they deservedly get hoofed out, they should make that illegal. It wouldn’t make up for anything else they’ve done and I’d acknowledge it as something else that’s almost completely indefensible, but at least it would make me laugh.
Joe - It was very good before the game, you could sense the “big game” feel to it and I liked the fan display as the teams walked out on to the pitch. News of Northampton’s early goal deflated things a little bit.
Hopes for the play-offs (Mozzer) / next season (Joe):
Mozzer - Hopes are obvious now, aren’t they? Expectation is a different thing. I know all the stats say we’re probably the team everyone else will be most worried about and I’ve got Bradford mates glad they’ve avoided us in the semi-finals. But I don’t think there’s much to choose between any of the four teams and there’s something about us at the moment that just doesn’t convince me that we’ve got what we need. I know we can look to injuries to some key players, but even allowing for that, we’re just not quite on it. Let’s see if hope can triumph over expectation…
Joe - It’s hard to say. The recruitment over the summer is crucial for the club. Ideally, you would like to say they will be competing in and around the top end of the table for an immediate return to the Football League but the National League is tough. Some big clubs have continued sliding when they’ve dropped out of the EFL over recent years. You just hope that won’t be the case here.
The British Library receives a copy of every single book published in the UK. In the same fashion, Des Junior believes a detailed record of every County game should be preserved for the history books. So here’s the full story of our 1-1 draw at home to Hartlepool United on Monday 8 May 2023, as told from his three County-related WhatsApp groups…
12.36pm: Fuck.
12.48pm: Get in!
12.48pm: Hang on, they’re talking to the liner…
12.49pm: Disallowed. Foul on the keeper.
1.09pm: Get in! That’s how to take a penalty. Come on now Tranmere, you lovely fake Scousers. (I reserve the right to be fiercer if they don’t do their bit.)
1.14pm: Well done Yellow Block. You’ve just caused an apology for bad language on Sky.
1.49pm: Superb goal that. Wank defending. They’ve been the better side so far in the second half.
2.02pm: Save of the season from their keeper?
2.04pm: Can someone tell him we’ll sign him up if he lets one in?
2.22pm: That penalty miss sums the day up. Fuck off County.
2.25pm: Salford in the play-offs.
2.32pm: Sort of wish we couldn’t have clinched promotion today now. Feels like we’ve already lost when we’ve got everything to play for. Can’t be disappointed with finishing fourth all in all, but that performance has really taken the wind out of my sails. Sort of knew it wasn’t going to be our day as soon as Northampton went ahead, but throw in a disallowed goal, their keeper having a stormer, missing a penalty… sickener.
2.33pm: Doesn't matter. We couldn't have gone up today as Northampton won. No one else in the play-offs won. We are still the form team and very hard to beat.
9.43pm: Just had a 12 inch American Hot from Pizza Roma on Castle Street. Bellisimmo!
Photo of the day
Don’t say we never treat our readers! Today we’ve got this cut-out-and-keep dart board for you. You’ll have to buy your own darts, but once you’ve got those, there’s hours of fun to be had chucking them. See if you can hit a bullseye by aiming your dart for that big horrible circle in the middle of the board.
Upgrade your coffee setup
I’d hazard a guess that a sizeable chunk of our readers will be enjoying today’s edition of The Scarf My Father Wore with a cup of coffee. Take a look at your mug. Now take a look at your coaster. They need upgrading, don’t they? Stop drinking your brew from a Sports Direct mug, then placing it down on an “I Love Blackpool” coaster. For just £18, pick up this stunning County mug and coaster set from Stockport artist Kate O’Brien. (Kate’s got loads of other great County/Stockport stuff as well, so check out her website or pop along to her stall in the market.)
Visit kate-obrien.co.uk for further details.
Today in SK
🥃 After today’s ticket news from Salford, most County fans will already be lying down in a dark room now, but for those who aren’t, if you need a few drinks to settle your nerves on this Tuesday night, we recommend heading to the Nelson Tavern (SK1). The Nelson have a great range of offers throughout the week, including £4.50 for drinks off the Doubles Bar, a comprehensive range of shots for £2, and 3 for £6 on Jägerbombs.
⚽️ If you’re heading out to watch the football tonight, get down to Bask (SK1) as they’ll be showing the Champions League semi-final first leg between Real Madrid and City on their big screens.
Never mind Google or Yell.com, we’ve got you covered
STOP! That got your attention, didn’t it? Just a quick one… I’d hazard a guess that at some point in May, all of our readers will use Google or Yell.com at some point looking for a particular product or service. But before you do, please have a quick look at our own directory to see if we have what you’re looking for. A number of great businesses support The Scarf My Father Wore, allowing us to publish fresh content every day, so let’s send a few enquiries their way in return.
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