Daddy's Humble Pie

After seeing my gorgeous daughter Isabella being born, I was very unlucky and got struck down with suspected swine flu.  This meant that for seven days after her birth I was in basic isolation in our bedroom and quite out of it.  After recovering and being able to integrate with my babies again I found that I was, without knowing, was giving Oliver more daddy time than Isabella.  I could not pinpoint this at the time but something was missing and I was baffled, after all my wife had provided me with the most gorgeous beautiful daughter.

I was stuck in a really funny mindset as I knew I loved my children all equally and yes we love them the same but also in peculiar ways a tad different, if that makes sense.  I was starting to understand with Oliver why I seemed to be doing everything to Oliver's call and whistle and putting Issy on the back burner.  I have a 10 year old son, Harry, who lives in Oxford as I left his mum when he was two. I can now see that I had become scared of rejection and being pushed away by Oliver as I knew I would be heading into uncharted territory with him once he got to two.  I had not done the potty training with Harry and had not been a big enough part of his life to have a say and help him develop a tad of his dads ways (lucky I hear you say).

I knew my daddy love and parenting skills had to change with Oliver because although at the time, that extra bit of t.v, the extra chunk of chocolate, the outstretched arms with cute eyes saying "pick me up daddy" as my legs are going to drop off scenario, that "lift me out of my buggy daddy as I need a cuddle and mum can push a £600 pound pram along the promenade empty", yes all of this I am guilty as charged and knew it had to stop.

So it was 4-5 months ago that the penny dropped and I realised that although I was not hurting my son I was teaching him and allowing him to drop into awful habits.  Plus I did not want Isabella watching and copying. Just to say mine and Isabella's bond has grown to such a massive one that it feels like the love and care and attention I have for my daughter could explode out of me at anytime!  It took me a while but we are bonded just the same as I am with Oliver and although Oliver still does get a bit more daddy attention, but I am working on that.

My first job to tackle was the picking up and carrying of Olly.  It had got to the stage where I may as well have had Velcro attached to me and, this was a) Making him very lazy and b) Sending out the wrong signal. Each time he whinged I would pick him up, a quick fix but only short term solution. Anyway as per ear bend from wife and the long pointed wagging index finger I stopped picking Oliver up every minute of every day. I must say that it took a long time, but he very quickly got used to daddy only picking him up if he had properly hurt himself or when we just wanted to share a random cuddle.  This also started straight away giving me some much needed Isabella time, which is just as magical as Oliver time.

My second issue to tackle was Olivers eating habits.  I truly believed that if Oliver had a mouthful of dinner and made no effort to eat anymore then it was fine and dandy for old chubby fingers me to pick his fork up and feed feed feed, but oh no, old pointy index finger got me again.  Karen explained how lazy Oliver had become with his eating now daddy was feeding him and how this again would affect his development.  My train of thought was that if I got him to eat then all was well.  Wifey was right though.  I left Oliver for a few nights and sure enough this excellent little boy with his table manners and lovely feeding skills was now back up and running.  Hooray listen number two and low and behold success number two.

My last task to tackle is my inability to say no to Oliver.  For example, Oliver being the eldest of my two children living with me had become very territorial with his toys.  He will shout as if being murdered when Isabella tries to join in, or attempts to pick a toy up, and my way was to give Oliver the toy he screamed for and palm Issy off with anything that was within reach.  By this time I turned to Mrs Marquick, her of pointy waggy finger, and she told me we needed to start by teaching Olly to share.  This worked a treat the next time he screamed that Issy had taken from him I asked him to share and for him to pick a toy for Issy, although this started as a bogey or paperclip lol, it has progressed that Olly will now share very good toys with Issy and he also knows she won't ruin them.

It is all still a massive work in progress with Oliver but my word by accepting help and advice from Karen my gorgeous wife we are slowly starting to notice massive steps forward by Oliver and he is learning slowly all the right things are the best things. It will take time to iron out the bad habits that I have instilled in him, but please remember if you have children the correct and sometimes what seems hard road is the best road. It works, believe me our house is settling into a much more productive and happy house now that daddy is no longer afraid of being rejected.  Children flourish from being taught the right things/ways. Thanks for reading G.

Fresh Start for the Pools

Having been a proud Poolie (Hartlepool United) fan for as many years as I can remember nobody can doubt that for such a small club with limited resources, we have had lots of lows (endless reapplying to the football league for re-election) and a few (cough cough) relegation's.  

We have also gathered a nice bit of credit over the last 10 or so years, playoff final although a defeat was a massive high and plus for everybody associated with the club.  Every Poolie will have been as proud punch to have got into the playoffs as this meaning the season had been a lofty finish.  We also had our promotions; both our last two we were so close to capturing the league title but still a huge punching above our weight achievement.

Now I live 327 miles away from The Vic and have a very young family so my forays these days are away games which are within striking distance (usually a hundred miles away max) the rest of my following is via my Pools Player which I subscribe to each year, although the new console is not great and not without its problems, but there is excellent commentary from the ever bubbly Mark Simpson.  On top of this my financial outlay always borders ridiculous in my bank statements, eyes on what I spend each season on Pools.  Generally me and the boys both have home and away shirts.  This season me and Karen (wifey) and kids have sponsored club legend, Club captain and all round fantastic guy Ritchie Humphreys away shirt.  We have had the honour on a few occasions of meeting Ritchie and he has always taken the time to have a quick chat and never grumbles at having photos taken with us.  Our wall in the front room is a Poolie shrine with pictures of various players and a fantastic framed card of the players autographs.  Also me and my two toddlers have two bricks on the centenary wall.

Our expenses to visit our away games has run into hundreds, so we really are south coast massive Hartlepool fans. So this leads me to give a quick insight into the modern Hartlepool side and manager choice.  Our squad when you dissect it has, on paper, some fantastic players worthy on their best days of getting into a lot of peoples this era Poolie squads.  For Instance we have Scott Flinders, he has emerged into a fantastic keeper for us, Jack Baldwin will surely play in the Championship, if not higher, Peter Hartley and Sam Collins both on their days tanks and solid centre backs, Ritchie Humphreys Legend, Paul Murray solid no nonsense wears his heart on his sleeve (wish he was 10 years younger) and Tony Sweeney engine and eye for goal.  James Poole oozes talent and just needs a string of games to show it, Luke James is a rough diamond but is so talented it is scary, Andy Monkhouse now is a really steady workhorse and Simon Walton is going to be class for us as long as he gets a fair crack of the whip.  This is to mention but a few.

So on their best days we all know these footballers can do it.  We have seen this from them all. Now after a fantastic start to last season (9 unbeaten I believe) we hit an awful slump and lost countless games at home and this cost Mick Wadsworth his job.  Micky Barron and Ritchie took over the ship and in my eyes did a blooming good job with Luke James bursting on the scene being a massive plus point.  Our next appointment to everybody's delight including mine was all round nice guy and in some peoples eyes a near God as far as Poolie managers goes, Mr Neale Cooper.  Now I have a strict no matter how much you like a guy, in football going back for second dibs at a club very rarely works, but I crossed my fingers and hoped.  Cooper in all his 11 months back, for whatever reason, just could not work his magic.  Who knows what went on and we can all guess and speculate but not for the want of trying things just did not work.  I remember being at the Wycombe game last season and it was the most lacklustre performance I had seen from a ~Pools side, combined with the fact Wycombe were fighting for safety and also had what seemed like 654 loan players popping up everywhere, we were well and truly drubbed 5-0.  My only consolation was that it was a scorching hot afternoon and they did half decent food.  

After that game I remember telling Karen that I felt we were on a slippery slope and sure enough our season just petered out.  This season we have only added 3 players to our squad but I felt with the players who came in we would have a pretty decent squad to really push on and have a right go at the league this season.  On the downside our form this season has been nothing short of **** (well you can fill your own blanks).  This led to Neale Cooper doing what we all knew was coming and he resigned. Short-term Micky Barron has been put in charge until we (swiftly) in my eyes put a new manager in the hot seat.  Again we will all have our own ideas who we want at the helm.  I would like to see Phil Brown come in.  We have already proven for whatever reason after Saturdays game we have found a bit of our Never Say Die Spirit.  We have a long way to go but I just have a feeling some fresh ideas the right starting 11 and we can get out of this mess.

You may call me stupid but believe me if we can get going in the right direction we can still salvage something from this season.  So lets do what us Poolies do best, lets stick together and support the lads like we always do and lets as a collective unit get out of this mini slump and quick.

My final two things are:

1. We need to keep Noble and Wyke for the season and; 
2. This is my modern era Poolie select squad. 

GK Dimi 
RB Micky Barron
CB Graeme Lee
CB Michael Nelson
LB Hugh Robertson
LM Ritchie Humphreys
CM Tommy Miller
CM Mark Tinkler
RM Tony Sweeney
CF Joel Porter
CF Adam Boyd

Subs: Flinders, Collins, Murray, Brown, E Williams

Just remember once a Poolie always a Poolie

Poolies are born not made

Samuel and Me - Part 2

So as promised Part 2 of Samuel and me.  If you've read Part 1 you've had a tiny explanation as to Samuel's disability 22q11 Deletion Syndrome.  I would like to now share a few more things that affect Samuel and obviously us as a family.

As we found out Samuel is not a naughty boy, he is a child with a disability and he just struggles to get by as do so many other children with the same and similar disabilities.  It is far too easy for outsiders to assume children with various invisible disabilities are naughty, why don't you just come and ask if it bothers you that much.  So many parents experience this and it is a shame.

Samuel can get very hyperactive at times, particularly when excited about something, although tiredness is also a huge factor.  At night he can yo-yo up and down stairs for hours before finally giving in to sleep.  This then knocks on to the following morning as then Samuel refuses to rise from bed as he is still wiped out.  What follows is growling, shouting, huffing and puffing and sometimes hitting out.  Once he has dragged his body out of bed it then becomes a battle to get him into the shower and he has to shower as most nights he will have wet the bed, although recently medication is giving us a few dry nights.  Samuel is not keen on cleanliness for some reason, but once in the shower he is not too bad, although he has to be reminded to use shower gel.  So just getting him up and showered can take up to 45 minutes for what would generally be a 5 minute job.

Now Samuel also has the "fluff syndrome", that is he can be distracted by a piece of fluff, so this causes us to often have to repeat things 30 times and we cannot ask Samuel to do two things at once as his brain just would not process either yet alone one.  We don't ask Samuel to do any chores apart from bringing his pull up pants (due to the wet beds) down and to bin them, plus sometimes to tidy his room. 

Another habit of Samuel's is that he has a tendency to leave me a mud monkey log in the toilet!  He tends not to wipe, flush or wash his hands, and we have to constantly remind him, but this can be met with anger as he doesn't like doing it.  He just doesn't understand the importance of hygiene.  Plus, its nearly always me that gets my eyes burnt out by the poo odour! 

Samuel also has difficulties in showing empathy and appreciation.  He does appreciate things that are done for him, but as soon as anything is done he quickly wants to move onto the next thing and he perhaps doesn't act or show emotion as would be expected.  This can be deflating at the time but you have to quickly remember this is not deliberate.  One such example is that when we went to watch Hartlepool United last easter as a family for a special weekend, and we managed to on top of everything else to get Samuel to be a mascot.  Now to all other children that are into football this is a once in a lifetime experience and you would expect them to talk about this with everybody family/friends/school, and to show real excitement and appreciation.  Samuel loved every moment and did himself and us proud (we took some great pics), but as soon as we got home it was like it was forgotten and he just was wanting whatever was next.

A massive plus to Samuel's personality is just how much he loves his family.  He loves caring for and helping look after his brother and sister, and he would often bend over backwards to do so.  It seems as though he has a mature side to him when asked to entertain or just generally help with the little ones and this is just a joy to watch.

Now as this will be spread over a few posts I want to now share just a small bit about the school side of things.  Karen applied for a Statement of Special Education Needs for Samuel after he started school, and after a battle with his school, she managed to achieve this for Samuel.  This enabled for him to have a teaching assistant at school for 10 hours a week.  This was put into place at his first school, so at just 5 years old he was already needing help.  Karen knew that the statement had to be reviewed every year and she also knew of what a massive job she had to do just to ensure Samuel kept his statement and thus the support of a teaching assistant.  Karen managed like the Supermum she is to keep getting it renewed each year and by doing this getting the help Samuel needed just to get by as best he could.  Now considering as each school year passed Samuel dropped further behind his peers, Karen managed to get Samuel up to 20 hours per week, and his school were putting in additional support on top of the statemented hours.  To all intense and purposes he was getting nearly full time support.  Our next massive task and challenge was to try and get Samuel accepted for a special needs school as Samuel would have just shrunk without trace once he got to secondary school age.  Also already evident at school was the mainly verbal bullying that had started, and this was wearing Samuel down.  After yet much fight and various reports to try and help get Samuel into special school we finally got the news we wanted early this year and he was accepted into a local special school.

As a family we were just so excited about this.  Samuel has been at his new school for three weeks and the difference in him is fantastic school wise.  He loves it.  So any parents out there thinking can we/ can't we, push for special school and don't be put off my the stigma, please do it your child will flourish and they are what is important. 

Anyway Samuel's disability will never go away and certain aspects may get worse, but we as a family we are here to help, love and support him all the way through his life.  I will stop here as I still have more but hey we have time.

In Part 3 I will explain about Samuel's speech and language difficulties, and the difficulties he faces with communication and understanding; the ups and downs that I have with Samuel and his obsessive behaviour that can, at times, drive us up the wall (except the last time Karen told Samuel he was driving her up the wall, he replied with a simple "but I can't drive mummy").

Please keep supporting me by reading about this amazing little fella.  Thanks

Samuel and Me - Part 1

Samuel is my step-son, he is 9 years old and he has a disability called 22q11 deletion syndrome.

This to you and me means that Samuel is missing a tiny piece of Chromosome 22.  Just by this tiny piece missing the list of health and learning problems is massive.  22q11 is the 2nd most common chromosome syndrome after Downs Syndrome, but unlike Downs Syndrome no two children with 22q11 have the same symptoms.

Here are just some of the problems Samuel has; Sub-mucous cleft palate, as to which he has had two operations; speech and language difficulties; short stature; poor muscle tone; he has a few tiny different facial features to you or me such as slightly more than normal sticky out ears and almond shaped eyes; Samuel is also behind with his education and although he is now in Year 5 his learning capabilities are I would say anything between Year 1 and 2 equivalent; Samuel has behavioural problems and this can range from simply not listening all the way up to showing violence so both ends of the spectrum; Samuel also wets the bed and this is due to Samuel's brain being unable like me or you to switch on the I need a wee button.  On top of this he is now extremely difficult to settle to sleep and often awake until 10-11pm, but once asleep would sleep through a bomb blast so this does not help.

So there is just a small starter to what this remarkable little man has to deal with on a daily basis.  Now I am going to share with you my story of my role as a step-dad to Samuel, a young boy with a disability just getting by day by day.  This is my post on how truly difficult at times it can be and how we struggle every day with what Samuel throws at us as a family.  Also with me being Samuel's step-dad.  No two days are the same with Samuel, or me come to that.  I am not ashamed to admit I so often fall into the all to familiar trap like so many people and when Samuel does something wrong my first instinct is to bawl and yell and go mad at him just as if he was a normal 9 year old.  My reason being unless you know Samuel you could be mistaken for looking at him and thinking he looked normal.  Well most of Samuel's problems are in his engine room, his Brain.  He operates in a totally different way to you and me.

So I shall take you back to the start and share with you my ups and downs of life with Samuel.  I will be blogging in several parts because I find this heart wrenching.  I will be truthful and hopefully just give an eye opener and a small bit of help to any other step parents out there, be it of a child with a disability or a child with none.

When I was in the early stages of talking to my now wife, Karen, one thing she asked of me was to take a small read on 22q11 as she informed me her son had this disability.  Well as you know so many people struggle at the thought of having somebody elses child/children in their lives let alone a child with a disability and I feel everybody operates on a different level.  My first thought was yes of course I am going to Google and have a read on this condition as I had to admit I had never heard of it (now I'm nearly as expert as Karen).  Well what a read and it seemed I was quite natural at taking quite a lot of knowledge on board, and informed Karen that I had read up on 22q11.  She was truly touched that I had taken time out to even read up on this.  Anyway things progressed and we had a first date (previous post) in our lovely petrol station, and following that Karen gave me the thumbs up and we arranged a second date.

It was Karen's weekend with Samuel (he has every other one with his dad) and I said this was fine.  So I turned up on the Saturday morning to pick up Karen and Samuel (the borrower).  I was bricking it and I have no disability, so just what was going through Samuel's mind I will never know.  Anyway, when Samuel said hello to me it quickly became apparent that Samuel, considering he was 5 years old, was very difficult to understand because of his speech difficulties and I realised I was going to have to quickly tune into him.  Now the worst thing in the world you can do is poo poo a child or adult with speech problems by just nodding your head and saying yes to anything, it is so much better asking a few times until you understand and it also helps to tune in to what is being said.  So, our first date with Samuel in tow was a trip to Poole Park where there is a play area call Gus Gorillas.  We stayed there a while and let Samuel gallop about for a bit whilst we had a hot chocolate.  We then headed off to a Harvester restaurant in Bournemouth and this is where I had my first insight into Samuel's behaviour.

Karen had brought along some toy soldiers to keep Samuel out of mischief.  We had a lovely meal and had asked for the bill.  We had decided to go halves and as Karen got her purse out Samuel snatched the money and started dashing about, close to us but not close enough to catch (slippery little eel), after managing to finally taser Samuel and ground him we paid and left.  Now this was just a tiny insight and start to my chapter in life with Samuel there is so much more to come but this will do as a start so please read and hopefully I can give you an insight into mine and Samuel's life together.  What you have to realise is that Samuel, just to get by each day, has to put in a months worth of effort, so please come back and read part 2.

Army, Trains and 1983

I grew up on a housing estate called Blackbird Leys in Oxford.  It was a massive council housing estate with a few private homes (posh folk).  I had a very strict Dad but a very non strict mum.  Anyway I had reached my school summer holidays yet again and had decided that it was time me and my band of merry men had fun! (we were all oddballs in our own special ways, were just perfect for each other and grew a bond of togetherness which nobody would understand). 

Certain parents did not like certain ones of us but we did not care (he's bad news that boy). 

Anyway, it was the summer of 1983.  A summer we wouldn't forget, and one where we would embark on the most wonderful 6 weeks (cue Stand by Me theme tune).  This would last for years and we would become very well known by lots of dodgy people (street cred). 

We lived near a local train line which transported Rover cards to and from the factory.  The good thing for us was that there were loads of trees, bushes and stuff.  I woke up early and within ten minutes had rounded up the "star wars" gang.  We pondered for a split second and then decided to play "army".  This would involve us trawling through the undergrowth for any sticks that in our minds resembled guns.  Once done we split into groups and went off in opposite directions to make camp.  We used to cut through bushes with cheap penknifes and lay various bits of cardboard down.

Once in the camps we were totally in the zone, we would work plans out how to ambush the other team, never sure of the rules, but we used to make a ner ner ner ner ner sound (not ambulance but machine gun sound) then you would have to shout danny (or whoever it was) your dead.  The corpse would then drop to the floor after taking a barrage of fake gunshots and wait for a team member to tag him alive.  Quite how this worked I will never know, anyway my squadron were rampnt we only had Stan (Jason) left to kill when platoon style he came hurtling out of a bush yelling train.  We knew what this meant and took our positions.  A car transporter run train was coming.  We hid and waited, the train came within touching distance and once past we started sprinting after it, our goal was the oil filled lamp on the back, we had never missed one yet. It had become a status symbol between us as to who was gonna get it.  As we approached the train everything seemed to go into slow motion and from the back of the train a brute of a man appeared and was waving a stick about.  Not put off by this we jinked and dodged to the train and my friend was just pulling the lamp from the holder when he shouted gun.

Gun!  We thought he must be joking, but no he was deadly serious.  We had the lamp and was running away like maniacs with this mad man taking pot shots at us, one by one we dived for cover.  The area was ours, we knew the undergrowth, one by one we started spotting each other.  Quick Gary headcount 5-6-wait one missing, it was then I heard a scream, everything went silent and our friend Steven half dropped through the bushes where we were.  I've been shot he said and sure enough there was blood everywhere we were in turmoil.  Where have you been shot I said, my arse he replied.  I took it upon myself to look at said backside and sure enough his jeans were blood splattered, on further inspection luckily for us I realised he had been shot with a salt pellett gun.  We knew he would be ok but had to get him home, so his mum  could carefully pull the salt pelletts from his bum one by on.

We took a pact that we would not say how when or where it happened but from that day on me and my friends became a family unit. We set off on some incredible adventures that year and never looked back.  Summer of 1983 was when I made true friends.

My Gambling Addiction

I want to share a massive life changer with you guys, so here goes.

Throughout my childhood I was in and around greyhounds (my family owned loads) and horse racing each and every day because my Dad had a liking or gambling.  He would gamble everything to an extent that homemade chips and beans on toast were nearly always on the menu as he would have gambled every spare penny.

My old man had become what turned out to be a right nasty piece of work.  He had been in prison for fraud and numerous times was arrested for anything and everything.  Anyway, one Saturday afternoon I decided I wanted to plce a bet on the horses and would spend some of my hard earned wages on this.  I had a couple of winners and made a bit of profit and low and behold I was hooked.  I quickly got myself a job with a local greyhound trainer and hey presto I was away.

In the beginning I started off gambling a few pounds here and there and at first it was fun and I found I won a few times (beer tokens) for going out with my friends.  My friends and I decided to go as far as buying a greyhound and getting more involved.  We paid two grand for a a 16 month old greyhound pup and put it into training.  After various time trials and fitness regimes this dog was put into a race called an A8 and all was well.  The trainer told us to fill our boots as our dog would not get beat on Saturday. 

It was tuesday and I was skint, wow I thought time to make some real cash. I got on the phone to my bank and put five grand into my account via a loan.  The plan to keep it quiet from Dad.  I would bet it on the dog, pay off the bank and bingo a nice profit too.  After managing to get my wad on the dog on Saturday everybody can guess yep, he got beat!   My life was in turmoil and I was in so much debt and no way to get out.

Over the space of the next 10 years I borrowed, lied and got into more debt and lost (now I see it as an escape) a marriage which also included my son Harry.  The gambling was relentless it had gripped me and taken over me.  If I ever won anything I very quickly lost 10 times that amount.  Wages were gone in a day and by that time I was on £155 a day as a self employed courier so my gambling and losses were astronomical but hey. I did not care.  That was until one day I woke up.  I had hit rock bottom.  I looked awful, was skint and unsurprisingly I had lost everybody close to me. 

Realisation had hit home this had to stop.  With my last gasp of mental strength I packed a suitcase and walked 5 miles to my mums all in the hope she would give me a final chance.  I pleaded with her saying that I wanted to change and slowly claw my life back.  My mum agreed.

I handed over my bank cards and everything that was anything to do with money and asked my mum to treat me like a kid.  She put me on spending money of £5 a week, and it took me just over a year, but with some serious hard work and love and help from mum and her then (boyfriend) now husband I finally came out the other side and had beat the gambling addiction.  I regained a daddy bond with Harry, I regained my friends and I regained my life.  Gambling affected and controlled me so much but I have beaten it.  This is why I have become a great husband, dad and all round good guy again.  People do not realise the effects and how bad gambling can be, but if you have anybody in your family getting in deep then help them asap, it is a life wrecker.

Bournemouth v Hartlepool 15 September 2012

As an away day fan of Hartlepool United am going to Blog about my experiences at each of the games I manage to get to.  In each blog I am hoping to do a short review of the ground, flood (if I eat any) and staff, and also the matchday programme.  I am also hoping to do a short question and answer section with a Hartlepool player, staff member and a Poolie fan, plus a quick report of the match.

So here goes:

Bournemouth - Hartlepool 15th September 2012

The game was held in Bournemouth at the newly named Goldsands Stadium.  The ground is a nice and tidy little ground with the only downside of having 3 sides.  The food was standard pies and hotdogs and hot and cold drinks.  The matchday programme was ok and I thought it had a nice bit on the Pools in it.  The staff at the ground were helpful and polite.  The ticket price on the turnstile was £20.00.

So, for my first question and answer section I have been lucky enough to ask James Poole from the Hartlepool squad.

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Question 1.  Do you think Pools are good enough for all 3 points this game?

Answer 1. Yes of course.  We showed last year we are capable of a result and all the lads are thinking exactly the same.  Bournemouth are a strong side but we will go into it going for the win.

Question 2.  If staying fit and in the team on a regular basis what would you like your seasons goal target?

Answer 2.  I just want to stay fit this season and if I do the goals will come.  I don't set numbers exactly but I would like to aim for about 15 goals this season.

Question 3.  Where honestly do you think Pools will finish in the league this season?

Answer 3.  I think we have a stronger side than last season and the aim is always to improve on last season.  I thought we were better than last seasons finish so top half has to be our aim.

Question 4.  Finally do you have any pre match superstitions?

Answer 4.  I hop onto the pitch with my left foot for some strange reason.  Don't know why but it has stuck.  It is the only one I have.

I also asked our resident mascot H'angus the Monkey, and Hartlepool fan Kayleigh Thompson 3 questions.
Question 1. What is your score prediction for Bournemouth v Hartlepool this match?

Answer 1.
H'angus - 2-1 Pools
Kayleigh Thompson - 3-2 Pools

Question 2.  Who is your favourite Hartlepool player?

Answer 2.
H'angus - All of them!
Kayleigh Thompson - Paul Murray or Peter Hartley I can't decide

Question 3.  Where do you think we will finish this season?

Answer 3.
H'angus - Top 10
Kayleigh Thompson - In or around the playoffs I hope

My final questions went to Hartlepool Press Officer and Pools Commentator Mark Simpson.

Question 1. What ground are you most looking forward to visiting with Pools this season?

Answer 1. I've not been to Portsmouth so I'm looking forward to the trip to Fratton Park, even though it will be a long one.  I'm also looking forward to going back to Coventry because that's a really fantastic stadium to visit.

Question 2. Do you think we can keep up our recent success against Bournemouth and come away with all 3 points.

Answer 2.  I hope so.  We've done well there in recent times and scored some pretty spectacular goals too.  I think we'll have to be strong in defence but I fancy us to nick a goal or two on the break, so I'll go for a 2-1 win.

Question 3.  If James Poole stays fit, do you believe if he's played up front he can be the answer to our goal scoring problem?

Answer 3.  Definitely.  He's scored some great goals since joining the club so hopefully there are plenty more to come.  He's got loads of talent.

Question 4. Where do you predict Pools will finish this season?

Answer 4.  I'll say 10th.  Steady progress has to be our aim and if we can finish in the top half and build again next year that would be ideal.

So yesterdays game ended AFC Bournemouth 1-1 Hartlepool United

The game did not have many chances first half and a well organised and solid, hard working Pools team kept the Cherries at bay.  Bournemouth were greeted with a few boo's by their own fans at half time so I think in a way testament to Pools on stifling one of this seasons stats as one of the sides who have created loads of chances in each game.  The second half and Pools looked a threat on the break and played some good football of their own, with the Cherries putting Pools under pressure but looking out of ideas it was Pools who took the lead in the 73rd minute.  Evan Horwood unfairly tackled in the box and the returning Simon Walton, who I thought had a great game, calmly slotted then penalty away, but with nearly the last kick of the ball Matt Tubbs finished from close range to give the hosts an unlikely share of the spoils.  A fantastic all round team performance from pools to make a good Bournemouth side look nothing more than average.

Simon Walton scoring from the spot

A massive thanks to James Poole, Mark Simpson, H'angus the Monkey and super Hartlepool fan Kayleigh Thompson for helping with my Q and A's this week.