JEFF STELLING: PLAYERS LOOK UP TO HIGGY
IF HARTLEPOOL United’s season was being marked for a school report it would be: Satisfactory. After all of the problems we had last season where the club’s future was in serious doubt, there’s plenty to be pleased about. We sat down at the start of the campaign and the remit was for the manager to steer us to mid table of the National League with no worries about relegation and that would be OK. If we could just get the ship back on an even keel we could be satisfied. That looks like how it will end. We’ve had three managers, which wasn’t the intention, but financially we’re not in the crisis we were. Craig Hignett has taken over managerial duties again. He’s incredibly popular with the players. He’s got a sense of humour, can put his arm around a player and he knows the game. From a fans’ point of view, they want to see football on the front foot. They want attacking football and they hadn’t really seen that earlier in the season. We started well but had a drastic dip in form. The Confidence dripped away. But, before the weekend, we only had two defeats in eight, we came back from two down in two games – you can see the boys are really playing for him. When Jake Cassidy left to go back to Maidstone United he said the atmosphere was poisonous – and he wasn’t totally wrong. All fans want to see is players putting in a proper shift and they will get behind you. I’m not for one minute suggesting Jake or any of the players weren’t putting the effort in but that’s what fans want to see, along with attacking action. That’s what they’re getting at the moment. We’ve got an incredibly young squad and the general outlook is pretty positive. We can take heart from a club like Leyton Orient. They had to find their feet last season and now they are in the title race after taking the time to build. They’ve got good owners now. They’ve landed on their feet with them and they deserved to because they’re a traditional club who have been through purgatory. I’m delighted to see them doing well and, obviously, I hope we can follow in their footsteps. But it’s not easy with the sort of money swishing around at this level. Raj Singh and I don’t have that sort of money. Some of it is staggering but people are attracted by the potential of clubs. Much like Salford. They’ve got the potential to not only become a Football League club, but maybe League One or even the Championship so they’re willing to invest that sort of money. I hope we can finish this season strongly and give it a good push. I believe we’ve got good players, a decent squad and, although not every fan will agree with this, if we can finish top ten then that’s mission accomplished. For the moment...