Joe Ramage: Hartlepool United's eight game mini-season as relegation run-in kicks off

For weeks we have been hearing about ‘x’ amount of cup finals while we all vigorously hit the refresh button on our score apps to check how Crawley Town have been getting on in what has felt like a game in hand every week.

Finally, however, Crawley are now caught up with their games in hand - only Harrogate Town now with a discrepancy, one game adrift.

It means, as we head into the final month of the season, the relegation run-in has officially arrived.

No more hypothesis, if’s but’s or maybe’s. It’s an eight game mini-season for Hartlepool as they scrap it out with, potentially, three other teams, with Rochdale all but gone at the bottom, in the hope they can earn six more points than Crawley or Colchester United.

Hartlepool’s situation, too, would be much bleaker were it not for that fixture they have on the horizon with Crawley towards the end of April. That alone gives Hartlepool hope, on the assumption they can remain within touching distance of the Reds over the next couple of weeks.

And therein lies an important point in this five week sprint.

For all it could well come down to that fixture at the Suit Direct Stadium in a few weeks time, there are five games prior to that which could mean it doesn’t.

Hartlepool have done well under John Askey. Not quite a team transformed, but a team showing traits you would not associate with one about to exit the Football League.

There is fight, there is spirit and there’s a threat in games. Something which has been missing for the majority of the season. Whatever happens, Askey deserves credit for being able to lift his squad to show some signs of life.

And yet, results continue to elude Hartlepool.

There’s a feeling that stat simply must change if Hartlepool continue to produce the same level of performance between now and May 8.

Against Leyton Orient they were a lick of paint away, twice, from claiming all three points. Against Bradford City, Northampton Town and Tranmere Rovers they have led before losing that lead either controversially or through a moment of individual brilliance.

It certainly does feel as though it is coming.

But perhaps unusually, Hartlepool will maybe see the reverse effect of that against Swindon.

Where against sides like Leyton Orient, Bradford and Northampton they have not been expected to get anything - in Swindon they face a team who appear destined for that ‘mid-table mediocrity’ title with their play-off hopes fading over recent weeks.

Suddenly, this is a game where, if the level of performance continues, Hartlepool may consider themselves as having a strong chance in. With that comes pressure.

Hartlepool are in no position, now, to buckle under any pressure. They are heading towards the last chance saloon with ‘kicking out time’ almost upon us.

The goal, in the background, will be to, at least, be in touch with Crawley when they head to the North East. The football scriptwriters will have it go beyond that to May 8’s trip to Stockport County.

In order to do that, though, Hartlepool need to turn these draws into wins, otherwise the relegation run-in will be over before it can give them hope.

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