Hartlepool chairman wants a united front in survival fight
Gary Coxall says Hartlepool must be United in the battle for Football League survival.
The Pools chairman says he wants players, the interim management and fans to “come together” ahead of the do-ordie matches at Cheltenham and at home to Doncaster Rovers.
Coxall has removed Dave Jones as boss and installed defender Matthew Bates, striker Billy Paynter and backroom staff, Stuart Parnaby and Ian Gallagher, in charge of team affairs.
“We need to get away from the past,” he said. “The Orient and Barnet games are gone – we can do nothing about that now. What we do now is come together and say ‘we can do this’.
“We have the capability – it’s well within our abilities.
“We’ll pick through the faults at the end of the season when all’s done and dusted.
“Let’s be positive, believe it, this club has done it before, we can do it again. There is no reason at all why not.
“It’s not mathematically gone, Newport have two difficult games, Cheltenham have a hard run-in.
“I’d rather have our games than theirs. They could drop points. We can do it.”
Coxall says the club’s owners. JPNG, have, deliberately, kept the job inhouse, rather than looked at an outside figure to try to turn things around.
Bates is in charge for the two games, assisted by club captain Paynter, conditioning coach Stuart Parnaby and head physio Ian Gallagher, both of whom are former Pools players.
Coxall believes they have the perfect blend.
“Definitely,” he said. “The beauty of this appointment is that everyone knows each other.
“The players know Batesy and Co inside out and Batesy knows the players inside out.
“They have done a lot of work in a very short space of time about organising training and how they want the team to set-up and what they want out of them.
“The players are fully on board. I’ve looked them in the eye and there is genuine belief there.
“Do you know what, we’ll emerge from this and move forward. People might say ‘it’s only words’ and it is, but I do have total faith in them.”