Keith Curle previews Hartlepool United's 'massive' Boxing Day fixture against relegation rivals Rochdale

There are many milestones when you break up the 46 game Football League season but Christmas is notoriously one of the go-to’s when it comes to making a judgement on how a season has gone and how a season is likely to go.

For Hartlepool there hasn’t been much to shout about this year, but they arrive at the Crown Oil Arena this afternoon still buoyed from their most recent outing, a deserving 2-0 win on the road against Crawley Town - their first away success of the season.

That victory in West Sussex carried Curle’s men outside of the bottom two and with last weekend’s fixture with Newport County falling foul to the sub-zero temperatures sweeping the nation, it meant Pools remained off the bottom and out of the drop zone on Christmas Day, a fact not lost on Curle.

“It’s as you were,” Curle told The Mail.

“We’re not on the bottom going into Christmas which would have been, psychologically, negative.

“But as I’ve said, there’s going to be other teams that are going to have, and spend, a period of time at the bottom of the league and it’s how they, as a football club, deal with it.

“That’s not only the players, it’s the management staff, the supporters and the owners. It has a negative effect on everybody and it’s how you come out of it and how you deal with it when you’re there.

“You’re not where you want to be but what are you doing about it? You’d be surprised, some football clubs don’t deal with it well.”

And Curle may have reason to be upbeat about his side being outside the drop zone heading into Boxing Day’s fixture when you look at the recent history of relegations from League Two.

In five years since Hartlepool themselves were relegated in 2017 - excluding the 2019-20 campaign given its curtailing - at least one of the teams in the bottom two at Christmas has remained there come the end of the season.

Last season both Oldham Athletic and Scunthorpe United were in the the bottom two and both dropped out of the Football League. In 2020-21, Southend United and Stevenage propped up the rest, with Southend going down.

Notts County and Chesterfield have both suffered similar fates in the 2018-19 and 2017-18 campaigns - Barnet, who were 22nd at Christmas in 2017, ended up joining Chesterfield.

You have to go back to that 2016-17 season to buck the trend where Cheltenham Town and Newport were in the bottom two on Christmas Day with Leyton Orient and Hartlepool taking their places at the end of the season.

“Historically when I've looked at it, you get the top eight, the middle eight and the bottom eight and there’s usually two teams from each section can change,” said Curle.

“You’ll find two from the middle will go into the top eight, two from the top will drop into the middle, two from the bottom will go into the middle and two from the middle will drop into the bottom pack.

“And within that shuffle it can be anywhere. There’s teams who can be in the middle who can move into the top three, likewise there’s teams who are in the middle now, after four or five games, can be hovering in and around the bottom two and some clubs don’t see it coming.”

But if Curle is going to ensure his side are not one of those to drop back into danger, then games such as this afternoon’s against Rochdale are going to be vital.

Having been hammered 5-0 by Stockport County at the beginning of the month you would have been forgiven for thinking Hartlepool would even be in this position come Boxing Day.

But, in what was a crucial fixture away at Crawley, Curle’s men showed something we have not seen a great deal of this season when earning a deserved victory against Matthew Etherington’s side and, as such, bringing Crawley back into the mix towards the bottom of the table.

And Pools will need to show similar this afternoon where a win would see them climb above Rochdale - a side possessing the worst home record in the division this season having taken just seven points from a possible 30

“It’s a good chance, but we just need to look at our last away performance,” said Curle.

“It was solid. We were creative and effective from set pieces. We needed to do a little bit more in open play but as a defensive unit, from front to back, we looked quite solid.

“I think we denied them [Crawley] a goal scoring opportunity [on target] until the 90th minute, so that’s another building block that you put in place and you want that to become part of your fundamentals where you go away from home and you’re going to be competitive.”

He added: “We’re playing somebody in and around us. It can have a massive impact on where we are in the league but, ultimately, it’s three points.

“Their manager, Jim Bentley, was a YT, as they used to call them, back in the day at City when I was there.

“I’ve always had a very good relationship and a good understanding of how Jim wants his teams to play and operate. They’ll be organised and difficult to break down. But he’ll know what my teams are like as well.”

The meeting with Rochdale is the start of what is likely to be the key period for Hartlepool this season with games against Harrogate Town, Gillingham, Colchester United and Rochdale again on the horizon, along with the January transfer window.

And with Gillingham and Colchester also squaring off with one another this afternoon, it could be a huge day at the bottom of League Two.

“It’s massive,” Curle told The Mail.

“But our focus is 100 per cent on us. I think there’s aspects within our game, with possession of the ball, that we know we can improve on with personnel coming back and with some additions.

“We’re coming into a very difficult period time-wise, but I think it’s good because it’s games. As a player and as a coach I've always enjoyed playing games rather than training.

“The attitude and the mindset of the coaching staff and the players is to use it as an opportunity.”