After the last few years of purgatory following York City, the appointment of Terry Dolan offered a glimmer of optimism. I thought that at last we had made a shrewd appointment.

Fans of Dolan's previous club Hull City warned us, however, that we had made a grave error.

They pointed to the fact that he had nearly succeeded in taking them out of the league the wrong way, and that his chosen tactic of agricultural long-ball style football was unattractive in the extreme.

I still felt that it was probably issues out of his control at Hull that had prompted their demise. But oh dear, how right they were!

He appears to have totally lost the plot. I have often been frustrated in my support of the club, and have often been angered over the years, but lately I have become plain embarrassed.

In my 25 or more years of watching league football I have never seen a side have to resort so one-dimensionally to the long-ball game. Is this all they practice on the training ground? It's even got to the stage where he selects a two-man midfield which reduces the neccessity to actually pass the ball.

The latest embarrassment is seeing Mark Sertori up front. This suggests to me that Dolan is devoid of coaching skills and imagination.

He blames the likes of McNiven and Mathie for not doing the business, but they do not even recieve the ball to their feet in the opposition half! What are they supposed to do?

I presently live in Hartlepool yet still get to as many matches as possible, but the ultimate indictment of the present situation is that there is now far better footballing fare at the bottom of my street, the Victoria Ground. It's come to something now!

Rob Johnson,

Welldeck Road,

Hartlepool