After a poorish start to the season a good September could have helped us to start to stride towards the play-offs. Instead it was an inconsistent month in the league and we were dumped out of the league cup.
Donny done by Donnelly
September started well with a Friday night away win at Doncaster. A cross by Keigan Parker was met by Ciaran Donnelly who slotted in for the only goal of the night. It was Pool’s first away win of the season and lifted the fortunes of the squad after a poor start to the campaign.
Wright start, wrong result
September also saw the introduction of Tommy Wright to the squad, Wright went on to score six goals in ten starts at the seaside before he chose a move to Barnsley. In his first game he grabbed a fantastic goal against Hartlepool the first visitors to Bloomfield Road for the month. Wright lobbed keeper Dimitri Konstantopoulos, after the Greek had made a mistake. But Wright’s career at the seaside started with a defeat when the dreaded last five minutes problem hit, goals on 86 from Sweeney and Istead on 91 secured a win for the Monkey Hangers.
Blinking marvellous
Pool then travelled to Bristol City with a much depleted squad, only 17 full professional travelled down to Aston Gate. Thanks to a late header from Matthew Blinkhorn the small squad were able to take a point home after David Cotterill had put the Robbins in the lead.
Crisp finishes from de Vries
Midweek provided a break from the league with a League Cup round Two match at the Walkers Stadium against Leicester. The two sides had met the year before in the F.A. cup, when the Seasiders managed to take the Foxes to a reply. This time around Leicester just managed to secure a win first time round with de Vries grabbing a brace sandwiching a Parker strike.
Dons Dumped
For the weekend it was back to league action with a home match against MK-Dons. Hendry had managed to bring in another loan signing in the form or Ian Morris from Leeds United. He only managed a place on the bench for the game at the weekend. Rob Edwards, Tommy Wright, Danny Coid and Keith Southern were all recalled into the team after missing the mid-week cup game. Pool went onto beat MK-Dons 3-2, goals from Clarke (pen), Mills o.g. and Burns were enough to cancel out goals from Rizzo and Small.
No go Igoe
The final match of the month saw Pool’s fourth away game of the month, this time it was the League One’s big boys, Nottingham Forrest. The game was watched by 17,071, the largest crowd that saw the Seasiders play last season. A low free kick from Parker, his second of the month, gave the away side the lead on 24 minutes. Despite the best efforts from the defence to hang on, Forrest managed grab an equaliser thanks to an Ian Breckin header. The month ended with a failed attempt to sign Sammy Igoe on loan from Millwall.
So September ends
So September, out of 15 points that were up for grabs 8 were taken and we were now out of the League Club. Two new players came in, Wright who had impressed and Morris who had not had much time to show what he could do.
We were in 16th place in the league with 14 points, only two points off the play-offs and two points off the relegation spot. So as September ended we were no closer to seeing where our season was heading, however the results to come in October would shape our season.
