The performance may have been an improved one, but the end result is still another home defeat - and the people that weren't there won't come back on the basis of "we could/should have got something out of the game." The attendance was below 3500, and all the excuses that may be trotted out - the time of the year, three home games in a week, Champions League on the TV - don't really cut it. If we were in the top 6, does anyone seriously think we would have had the same number of paying customers last night? I'd argue that Pools are now operating at about 1200 fewer per home game than we would have expected if the team was looking like Top 10 material, and 2000 or so less than if we were challenging at the top of the table. You don't need to be an accountant to realise that means there's a lot less money coming in.

The truth of the matter is that it's not much fun being a Hartlepool United supporter at the moment, and particularly not if you can't get to away games. The hard core fans will always try and get to the match, but there's maybe 3000 of them. The annoying thing for those of us that have been fans for a long time is that we have completely failed to take hold of a golden opportunity to add to our fanbase: 17,000 went down to the playoff final, and if Pools were riding high this season I suspect quite a few of them would be thinking seriously about coming down to the Vic occasionally. We can forget that now - the casual supporter just won't be interested in coming to see a side that's already lost to Bradford, Brentford, Colchester, Yeovil and worst of all Tamworth at home, and failed to really impress in most of the other games at the Vic either with the possible exception of Gillingham. Our home league wins have come against poor sides; our cup wins have come against lower division opposition that we were expected to beat. Forget for a moment the claim that we've over-achieved in previous seasons - at Victoria Park Pools have under-achieved in 2005/6 by almost any standard you care to apply.

The knives are being sharpened, and it's Martin Scott that's got reason to be worried. He's lost the confidence of the majority of the fans, and while previously a decent result or two has got people back onslde it's hard to see that being the case now: inconsistency has dogged our season, and the hope that the corner has been turned with each win has been dashed too many times to suggest that a good result against Bounemouth would be anything more than another false dawn.

Is it his fault? Well, while some measure of discontent may be aimed at the players, and some reference can be made to the injuries to our two main strikers, it's impossible for Scott to avoid a large chunk of responsibility. Yes we may be missing our best goalscorers - but Scott's signing Michael Proctor hasn't proved an adequate replacement so far, and Chris Llewellyn has only just been given an opportunity up front. Other players seem to have been frozen out completely, notably Gavin Strachan and Darrell Clarke; we keep being told that the latter isn't fully fit yet, but no-one that's seen him play for reserves agrees, and he was fit enough to be on the bench for Port Vale for a month. Maybe they aren't the answer to our problems - but the feeling is growing that they probably deserve a try. Scott has claimed recently that no-one is being cold-shouldered - but it's getting harder to believe as each game goes by.

The style of football also comes down to Scott. Under Cooper we played some decent stuff, and only tended to resort to the long hoof as a last resort; under Scott, there's been a distinct feeling that we're playing the long ball a lot more often. Certainly it's been less attractive to watch, and not only because we're not winning so often.

Of course, it's not up to the fans whether Scott goes or stays - but IOR can't be very happy with how things are going either. They backed the manager at the start of the season: Butler re-signed, and Darren Williams, Proctor, Llewellyn and Bullock all came in presumably on decent wages. We even paid out a transfer fee for Llewellyn, and not many clubs at this level did that. He's almost certainly been given the highest budget of any manager at the club - and is getting the worst sequence of results since the Mick Tait era. Possibly more to the point for an organisation that has kept an eye on the finances and talked frequently of the need for attendances to improve, income per home game will have dropped by £20K or maybe more - and that's not small potatoes at this level.

Am I joining the "Scotty Out" campaign then? Reluctantly yes. I just can't see him turning things around at the club; I've hoped against hope that he would, but it's just not happening. I was pleased when he was appointed manager in the summer: he'd earned his chance, and even now I'd say he's done a great job with the youth team over the years that's well worth praising. However the results, and some of the comments to the media (consistently trotting out the "overachievers" line after predicting we'd be in the promotion shake-up, saying "sometimes players have to run through injuries" a couple of days before Adam Boyd was revealed to need knee surgery, and the talk about commitment and hard work following every poor performance), have made me say "Enough is enough." Sorry Martin, but I just don't think you can cut it - and the season so far does little to persuade me otherwise. I'm fed up waiting for you to prove me wrong.

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