December is normally one of the busiest months in football, but for the Seasiders only five games took place and it was the off the field activities that kept everybody busy instead.
The James Hayter Show
The first match of the month saw Bournemouth visit Bloomfield Road. The pitch had now started the seriously deteriorate but it didn?t put off the Cherries who strolled to a 3-1 victory. James Hayter bagged a hat trick after Tommy Wright had put the Pool into the lead on five minutes. Hayter was replaced with a couple of minutes left and received a warm hand from the Bloomfield Road faithful who had just seen their team outclassed by the Cherries.
Before the next match press and fans had been speculating about possible bids that had been placed on the club. The club released a statement in the second week of December confirming that three bids had been received for the club, and so the ball started rolling.
Coid cropped – Clarke Class
Next up at Bloomfield Road were North-West rivals Tranmere Rovers. The Seasiders managed to grab a vital late point thanks to captain courageous Peter Clarke who played the last 5 minutes up front after Delroy Facey had given Rovers the lead late on. But the bad news was that in the first half Danny Coid was stretched off the field with what tuned out to be a broken ankle after a tackle with Chris Greenarce. Coid would make no further appearances for the rest of the season and with Jamie Burns injured and Ian Morris back at Leeds manager Simon Grayson was left with a problem.
All square at the county
In the build up to the match at the County Ground against Swindon manager Simon Grayson was dealt another blow with Rob Edwards also suffering an injury. This meant that Mark McGregor filled in as a make shift left-back. Pool managed to hang on for a second point in a row but still found themselves in the mire of the relegation zone.
Back on Track
Going into the festive period Grayson had a boost with Danny Warrender being granted another month on loan from Manchester City and Jason Wilcox also being allowed more time on loan. Gary Harkins decided against staying on and returned to Blackburn Rovers.
Boxing Day saw the tangerine faithful travel to Vale Park, Pool ran out 2-1 winners. A sliding finished from Wiles and then a superb lob from Keigan Parker gave pool a two goal cushion, which was held on to despite a goal from Clayton Fortune.
Click here to read the Port Vale match report.
Next up was the big North-West derby against Oldham and the return of Richie Wellens to Bloomfield Road. But there was to be no Wellens and no Oldham as the game fell foul to a frozen pitch.
New Year Eve woes
The final game of the year saw Pool travel down the M6 to Walsall. Pool were given a boost with the news that Ian Morris would now be re-joining the Seasiders on loan till the end of the season, but Morris wasn’t eligible to play in the game at the Bescot Stadium. But the Seasiders didn’t put anybody in the party mood for the night to come with a miserable 2-0 defeat to Paul Merson?s men.
Click here to read the Walsall match report.
Time for some New Year resolutions
Going into the New Year the Seasiders found themselves in 22nd place. With injures stacking up the New Year looked bleak for the Seasiders. The ball had started rolling with the proposed take over with speculation rife about possible Russian and Latvian millionaire wanting to plough their money into the club, that could never happen, could it?
