Hartlepool United verdict: Grimsby Town fightback can kick-start season for Keith Curle's side

The last time, in fact, came in January as Hartlepool shocked Blackpool in the third round of the FA Cup with Irish midfielder Gavan Holohan leading the celebrations in front of the North West Corner. You have to go back to October 2021 for the last time it happened in the league.

But Holohan was there again at the weekend, only this time in the away colours of Grimsby Town. ‘I’m feeling a change,’ the song aptly continues. But while that proverbial monkey has been lifted off the back of Hartlepool’s shoulders when it comes to winning a league game on home soil on a Saturday afternoon, more importantly the barren stretch of four straight league defeats also came to an end against Grimsby.

Having found themselves at the bottom of the table heading into the game, with a three point gap, and worsening goal difference, emerging, Saturday’s meeting with the Mariners was one of huge significance. Interim boss Keith Curle rebuffed suggestions of it being a 'must win' beforehand but, internally, you have to feel that is the message which was being relayed.

So in that regard, it did not matter how they got there, so long as they did. Curle has suggested on numerous occasions things may not be pretty in the short-term and that it’s about grinding out results. And Saturday is one of few times we have seen that ‘grind’ and that club motto of ‘Never Say Die’ really embodied by Hartlepool’s players.

After Holohan's superb opener the immediate thought was one of ‘here we go again,’ alongside ‘of course he would score.’ And things could have gotten worse for Pools in a first half where they were rarely at the races. But that grinding out process requires stages in games like that. It’s about being on the back-foot and riding your luck but, imperatively, staying in the game.

Curle won’t care that his side stayed in the game by virtue of an offside flag ruling out Ryan Taylor’s first half goal, or that a wasteful final ball cost Grimsby. He will be looking at a crucial last-ditch intervention by Nicky Featherstone to clear a Holohan cross or an equally important Alex Lacey clearance from a dangerous Michee Efete attack or a wonderful Ben Killip save to deny Niall Maher. That is what hanging in there is all about.

And by doing so, as Grimsby boss Paul Hurst alluded to, it keeps the back door open. Two goals in four minutes turned the game on its head. A combination of shock, and delirium, emanated around the Suit Direct Stadium, and in the press box. Not since March’s 3-2 success at Newport County, 26 games ago, had Pools come from behind to win a league game.

Curle expressed his delight post-match in the character shown by his side, as well as how it had teed him up for a potential personal hat-trick, but it’s a result which should really be able to lend Pools confidence.

It’s been a long time coming, and while they remain firmly in the mire, it’s the kind of result which can become the fulcrum of their season.