Hartlepool United verdict: It's a good start for post-transfer window Pools but they must maintain it

Dan Dodds had already raced forward, he had the legs on Doncaster Rovers defender Ro-Shaun Williams.

There was a collective gasp of hope from over 1,000 Hartlepool United supporters housed behind the goal in which Dodds was bearing down on.

On the Hartlepool bench, backsides left seats by one or two inches, again in hope.

The clock, in the adjacent corner at the Eco-Power Stadium, was ticking towards the 90th minute with results from elsewhere not exactly encouraging for Keith Curle’s side.

As it stood, Hartlepool were dropping back into the bottom two with the picture looking increasingly difficult as still we waited for the outcome of Dodds' late burst forward.

Whack.

The sound of Dodds’ strike clattering off Jonthan Mitchell’s post before another agonising wait.

There was another collective gasp from those Hartlepool supporters behind the goal, this time in despair - such was the time it seemed to take for the ball to cannon across from one side of the goal to the other. The only question was whether it would fall the right side of the line or not?

It did.

That momentary gasp was soon overpowered by an enormous roar and the kind of ‘limbs’ that will populate social media timelines for the week ahead.

Those backsides half off of their seats in the dugout were now in the air. Antony Sweeney leading the wild celebrations amongst the Hartlepool staff - for if you could clone Sweeney he would have been in that away end celebrating with supporters himself, or on the field with the rest of the players being mobbed such is his blue and white allegiance.

We can pick the bones out of the goal, for sure, with Dodds' pace and excellent finish, Josh Umerah’s impact and the overlooked role of Nicky Featherstone in choosing Umerah over a long ball into Dodds originally.

But, ultimately, none of that matters. What matters is that it went in and Hartlepool held on for seven minutes of injury time to seal a crucial three points.

It was three points which Curle himself may have doubted little over 24-hours ahead of kick-off.

With his match preparation done on Friday, Curle suddenly saw his plans thrown out of the window with star man Umerah unable to train through illness.

The striker maintained he wanted to give it a go at Doncaster but it gave Curle a decision to make.

The decision was to leave Umerah on the bench.

“It was a case of doing the right thing by Josh and if I can use you for 20 minutes, excellent,” Curle revealed after the game.

That disruption could have been detrimental to Hartlepool. But what it shows is that element of ‘unity’ Curle expressed he is trying to create as it was a case of ‘next man up.’

That togetherness will certainly be easier to come by should Pools continue in a similar vein as they did against Doncaster.

All 11 of Curle’s January recruits were in the match day squad, eight starting, with two more coming off the bench. Irrespective of how many of the 11 were Curle’s primary targets in the transfer window, this now represents more of ‘a Keith Curle team’ at Hartlepool.

And with that comes pressure, something Curle was only too willing to acknowledge post-match.

“Now the pressure is on me,” he said.

“If anything goes wrong, blame me. I’ve got four months to gain enough wins, but I don’t mind that.”

In order to gain enough wins to get Hartlepool over the line Curle will need to see the same and more from what he got from his side against Doncaster.

Despite there being such a player influx, they will need to hit the ground running - something which did not happen with the 16 who came through the door in the summer.

The early signs were encouraging. Deadline day trio Dan Kemp, Oliver Finney and Connor Jennings all started and you felt they represented more of a team rather than individuals on the field.

Jennings displayed his experience in his runs and clever flicks, Finney showing some encouraging off-striker runs we have seen little of from the Pools midfield this season whilst Kemp slotted in seamlessly with Dodds and Jamie Sterry on the right - a trio of real promise.

“I know it’s easy to pick out individuals from a win, but today is about the unity we’re trying to grow,” said Curle.

“For us to do what we’re trying to do, we’re going to need everybody that’s travelled today and everybody that’s involved. It’s not only on game day at three o’clock. It’s the attitude, the application and that willingness to be able to compete. We need to maintain that.

“As a squad we are very welcome to the new lads who have come in, we’ve shown them what we’re about and there’s been a seamless transition so far and that’s a good sign.

“They haven’t just come in because they were available,” he added.

“We’ve had to make the enquiries, we’ve had to show the interest, we’ve had to have a lot of knowledge on the players to make sure they fit into different systems potentially we can play.

“I think we ended the game in a 4-3-3 but within it we played other systems, three at the back, the four diamond in midfield and a 1-1 with the one up top. But we’re trying to bring in that flexibility we’re going to need in games.

“There’s going to be different periods in games where we’re going to need to slide into a different formation. Now we’ve got personnel where we’ve still got square pegs in square holes.”

Square pegs in square holes, fluctuating systems, options from the bench and, ultimately, a win. It’s a solid start to this post-transfer window variation of Hartlepool. But it’s one they must maintain.