Joe Ramage: It's been a year of decline for Hartlepool United - 12 months on from Rotherham United 'nearly moment'

It’s strange, there are times when it feels like so much more than a year ago and yet there are times when it feels like so much less time has passed.

But on the anniversary of Hartlepool’s ‘nearly moment’ in the EFL Trophy semi-final against Rotherham United, one thing which cannot be disputed is just how drastically things have unravelled for the club since that evening at the Suit Direct Stadium.

From the brink of utopia to a year of decline, Hartlepool were a kick of the ball away from history and making it to Wembley for the very first time only for Angus MacDonald to block out the cacophony of noise surrounding him to beat Ben Killip and level the shootout up at 4-4.

Such is the case with penalty shootouts, the pendulum can shift within an instant. And so it proved here as Tom Crawford’s miss was followed by Mickel Miller converting to send the Millers to the final and, ultimately, the EFL Trophy.

Despite the result evading Hartlepool so agonisingly, it is a night which will, uniquely, be remembered quite fondly.

There was praise and adulation, albeit decorated by despair.

The Suit Direct Stadium was sold-out harbouring memories of yesteryear and Adam Boyd hat-tricks on fine spring evenings.

Flags were waved and there was a crackle in the atmosphere, the kind undeterred by the knife through tension, as noise levels were ratcheted up another level. As they say in boxing, this was a big-fight feel for Hartlepool. And they brought their A-game.

The season prior, Rotherham were a Championship club, Hartlepool a National League club, yet Pools went toe-to-toe and took them all the way to the lottery of a penalty shootout.

Heading into that night in March 2022, the wind that will later this year whip around the town’s Tall Ships race was firmly in Hartlepool’s sails.

Pools had lost just one of 10 league games heading into the semi-final, their League Two status all but assured, and had enjoyed a memorable day at Crystal Palace in the FA Cup just weeks earlier.

But since that defeat to Rotherham a year ago Hartlepool have won just nine games - 10 should you include the penalty shootout success over Solihull Moors in the FA Cup. They have played 55 games.

And with that form, coupled with the continuous turnover and transition at the club, the collective air has been well and truly sucked out of any blue and white balloons left inside the Suit Direct Stadium from that semi-final.

There are many mitigating circumstances as to why things have gone so wrong since that fateful night, with the overriding emotion being one of sadness.

At present, this does not feel like the same club who took to the field that night against Rotherham. That club had the feeling of one on the up.

What has transpired since is one heading in the opposite direction.

As things stand, Hartlepool have 11 games to arrest what has been a year-long slide to preserve their Football League status and seek to reignite those blue and white fires that have been extinguished over the last 12 months.