Where did it all go so wrong for Pools?

Even by Hartlepool United's standards, the 2024/25 season has been a controversial and challenging one.

- Robbie Stelling

Pools fans have become all too familiar with the feeling of having their hopes and expectations raised over the summer, only for their initial optimism to be dashed and then decimated soon after the season gets underway. Pretty much every year, long-suffering supporters are told that next season will be different.

Some fans, against their better judgement, allowed themselves to dare to dream ahead of the 2024/25 campaign. After all, there were some positive signs; recruitment, with an emphasis on signing players with links to the local area, was refreshingly focused, while new manager Darren Sarll was making all the right noises. As it turned out, the season certainly was different, although not in the way fans might have hoped.

Pools have, once again, used three different managers in a single campaign. The club have failed to live up to expectations and have rarely looked like a side capable of challenging for promotion, despite one or two false dawns.

Indeed, Pools flirted briefly with relegation during a run of eight games without a win between February and March before finishing almost slap-bang in mid-table, one place and two points better off than last term's 12th placed effort. If there has been the slightest bit of incremental progress on the pitch - and most fans might well be inclined to challenge even that - then few would dispute that, off the pitch, Pools have gone backwards.