A Look Ahead: Pools come to Town

Saturday sees the visit of Northerners Hartlepool to the hallowed turf of the County Ground, and both sides will be looking to secure 3 points, with only 6 separating the two teams.

It will be a bitter sweet welcoming from Town manager Danny Wilson, who managed Hartlepool for 133 games, leading the Pools to promotion to where they are now, before leaving to ply his trade at SN1 in December 2008. Wilson has also been hailed as the man that kick started James Brown's career (if you watch Soccer Saturday, you'll have heard of Brown thanks to Jeff Stelling). Wilson handed Brown his first-team debut at the tender age of 19 back in 2006 whilst in charge at Victoria Park, and Brown has held down a regular starting place up front and become a fan favourite since.

Another player with links to both clubs is 28 year old Pools Midfielder Andy Monkhouse. "Monkmanaman", as he is affectionately called by the Pools' faithful, due to his likeness in looks and style of play to Steve Mcmanaman, had a short stint at the County Ground when Dennis Wise made him his first signing in June 2006. Niggling injuries kept his first team appearances to a minimum before Wise agreed a loan deal with Hartlepool United. In January of the same season, and after only 12 appearances in a red shirt, a permanent deal was agreed and "Monkey" made the move North. His next encounter with the red and white dynamite, much to The Robins' distaste, saw him score the winning goal in Hartlepool's 1-0 victory over Swindon in February 2007. Amazingly, in this 2006/2007 season, Monkhouse would go 32 league appearances without being on the losing side, until Hartlepool were defeated in April 2007 by Barnet.

Swindon currently have the upper hand in the rivalry between the two clubs, having recorded 10 victories, with Hartlepool having got 3 points against only half the amount of times.

Last season's encounters between the two sides saw Hartlepool come away with the most points. A year to the month, Victoria Park was the venue that saw a thrilling 6 goal encounter between the two sides, and boasting a hat-trick from each side as Hartlepool pulled off an inspired come-back. Unfortunately, this was one that I could only listen to on the radio, unable to make the long trip north. Simon Cox fired Town into a 3 goal lead in what was the season that saw him finish as joint top Goalscorer in all English Professional leagues, tallying 29 goals along with Ricky Lambert. Joel Porter then completed his hat-trick, and the comeback with 2 late goals in the 82nd and 90th minute to stop the Swindon faithful painting the North red. Porter moved back home to Australia at the end of last season to play for newly formed Gold Coast United , so there is no risk of a repeat performance from the 19 goal striker this season.

The reverse fixture of the season at the County Ground in February of this year, saw Hartlepool take all 3 points in controversial fashion. A last minute penalty, literally the last kick of the game was awarded after Jerel Ifil was adjudged to have fouled in the area. These two encounters were just two of many games in this season where Swindon dropped points in the final minutes. A season where if games were played over 80 minutes Swindon would have been sat in a playoff position rather than fighting for their League 1 lives in April of this year.

Ahead of Saturday's match, Swindon have seen a lot of media attention during this week. Wilson attempted to bury the fracas between Kevin Amankwaah and Neil Harris during Saturday's enigmatic clash with Millwall at the County Ground that saw two dismissals. Wilson had the following to say to the awaiting media at the County Ground today:

“The line has been drawn as far as I’m concerned and this is the end of it,” he said.

“Both players have had their say and both would like to see the end of it.

“Why and how it came to the press in the first place is beyond me. As far as we’re concerned nobody could win - not Millwall, not us, and neither of the players.

“The only people that win are the media, and when washing starts being hung out in public it’s very difficult.

“But at this moment in time it’s fine. Both players have come to a diplomatic agreement and we’ve drawn a line under it. End of story.

“Things happen in the game and there will always be regrets, but that’s the end of it.

“We’ve let Kevin have his say, the Millwall player has had his say and it’s finished.”

More media attention was aimed at the County Ground after Wilson had his appeal surprisingly turned down with regards to Jonathan Douglas' red card and 3 match ban he received against Millwall. The FA also extended the ban to 4 games, an automatic procedure after an appeal is dismissed.

And Wilson, who so far during his reign at the County Ground has kept his thoughts regarding referee's and FA decisions to himself, cut an extremely annoyed figure as he made his thoughts clear to the awaiting press this morning:

“We didn’t just have a good case - we had a great case, a fantastic case,” he fumed.

“And I’m totally pissed off that we didn’t get anything from it, and I’m even more pissed off that he (Douglas) got an extra game.

“We weren’t just going to put it there for the sake of it and hope - we put our money behind it and it’s just thrown out and given an extra game ban.

“Three people sat there and said it was a definite sending off with no input from the referee “I am absolutely incredulous that the decision could be made by those three people like it was.”

“I’m still livid and absolutely pissed off about it, and we can’t do anything about it unfortunately,” said the boss.

“It was not right. We put forward a fair and proper appeal, and from our point of view we’ve been dealt with with an iron rod, basically telling us not to appeal again because this is what we’ll get.

“I don’t see clubs at the top level being punished like this. The top level sides aren’t dealt with the way we are.

“Maybe they are using the lower league clubs as examples, I don’t know.

“We are encouraged to appeal, so we appeal and then we get punished for appealing.

“You tell me where the fairness is in that.”

A lot of pissing going on here. Unfortunately, the video of the interview has yet to surface on STFC Player. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and if it does surface you'll be able to watch it here at The Robins' Nest. The Swindon Advertiser went with the headline of "Thanks for sweet FA!" for this story, very witty.

Moving slightly away from the media spotlight of the County Ground, but not completely, 15 year old winger Alex Henshall came on for his country in the Under 16 Victory Shield tournament shown live on Sky Sports on Thursday night. The tournament sees England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales put together a team of Under-16's to compete for the shield. England beat Wales 1-0 with Henshall bagging the assist after an inch perfect cross. Henshall is one of the bright starlets to have come through the renowned (believe it or not) Swindon Youth Academy, following in the footsteps of several others including Ben Tozer who was snapped up by Newcastle, Lukas Jutkiewicz who was signed by Everton and is currently on-loan at Motherwell, and Sean Morrison who still laces his boots in the Town first team. Henshall was named MVP (Most Valued Player) this year at the annual Milk Cup tournament of Northern Ireland, a bonanza of youth talent on display at the tournament and where many a Premiership footballer competed in the younger years.

Henshall has been included as sub at Swindon so could be close to breaking into the first team. A bid from Chelsea was turned down by Swindon earlier this year, with Man Utd, Sunderland and Everton also declaring their interest in the talented defender.

Getting back to tomorrow's game, Wilson still has some decisions to make following the 1-1 draw with Millwall. Jonathan Douglas will be absent due to his suspension, giving the likes of Michael Timlin and Craig Easton a chance of holding down a regular starting place. There are no changes to the long-term injury list with Alan O'Brien (hamstring), Kurt Hammonds (knee), Hasney Aljofree (knee), Lloyd Macklin (leg fracture) and Yinka Casal (knee) all still ruled out. Lee Peacock continues to race towards full match fitness and could feature, although this looks doubtful with Tope Obadeyi returning after recovering from Flu and signing an extension to his loan deal until November 14th.

For the blue shirts, Ben Clark, the scorer of the controversial penalty that gave Hartlepool 3 points here last season has just begun full training after a groin injury, but has been ruled out of tomorrow's game by manager Chris Turner, who minus Clark, has a full team to pick from, including Andy Monkhouse, who will be looking for his 2nd goal against his former employees.