Pools frontman reflects on impact of managerial changes as tumultuous season draws to a close

Pools have made three different managerial appointments in a single season for the second successive campaign. The club made the surprise decision to replace Kevin Phillips with former Stevenage, Yeovil and Woking boss Darren Sarll a week after the end of last term. Sarll was then replaced by veteran Lennie Lawrence, initially on an interim basis, after winning just four of his 15 games at the helm. Lawrence steadied the ship before stepping down in favour of Anthony Limbrick, who became the 16th permanent Pools appointment in the last decade, in February.

The playing squad, then, have had to contend with a whole host of upheavals over the last 12 months. Having been preparing for another season with former Sunderland and England striker Kevin Phillips in the dugout, Pools opted for a complete change of tack when they appointed the pragmatic, direct and straight-talking Darren Sarll. Lennie Lawrence's far more measured approach seemed to serve as a welcome change for most, while Anthony Limbrick has worked hard to re-inject some energy and attacking intent to Pools having flip-flopped between a 3-5-2 and 4-2-3-1 formation in the opening weeks of his tenure.

Despite a run of six games unbeaten, Saturday's draw with relegation-threatened Dagenham and Redbridge leaves Pools all but out of the play-off race, meaning this season is likely to be condemned as another bitterly disappointing one. While Dieseruvwe, who missed a penalty at the weekend, insists the buck stops with the playing squad, he admits the instability in the dugout has thrown up a number of challenges.

"It's been tough," he said.

"When you come in for pre-season, that's where you get the belly of your work done. You have the ideas that you're going to take into the season and you work a lot on certain things, so the players have a notion of what to expect - and also what is expected of them.

"We were a lot more direct at the start of the season and we tried to get the ball forward very quickly. Sometimes, that took away some of the quality from our forward passing and the attacking play. For so many reasons, that didn't work.

"Then we had Lennie, who changed the style to more of a mid-block, we were a bit more composed.

"Now Anthony's gone a bit more expansive with the 3-5-2 and the attacking wing-backs.

"We've had to take on a lot of different messages, ideas and bits of information from different voices. Over the course of the season, it's tough to just flip a switch and go to playing a different way. I think we've tried to make the transition slowly, at first through Lennie and now through Anthony.

"Every manager this season has had some good ideas and tried to implement them. It's down to us as players to deliver that and as a squad I think we need to look at ourselves first and foremost and be disappointed with our output.

"I never want to blame a manager or a system or style, at the end of the day as players we hold the responsibility. As soon as you cross that white line, it's up to us.

"On the whole, it's been a difficult season because of all the changes and different things that have happened."

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