THERE was a time last season when Colin Cooper and Craig Hignett were likened to Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. 
The Clough comparison – both played for Middlesbrough, both started out as managers at Hartlepool United – was one Cooper was happy to talk up just three weeks ago. 
It is said that Clough never recovered from losing Taylor as his trusted confidant and assistant; and so Cooper was not the same after Hignett left Pools for Middlesbrough. 
Hignett’s spark and effervescent character contrasted straight-laced Cooper around the Maiden Castle training ground. He gave Cooper not only a buffer between manager and players, but added some spark to the club. It’s been flat since he departed.
Since he was poached by Boro on March 3, Pools record has been desperate. They only won twice more last season and have triumphed in just two games this.
Cooper didn’t replace Hignett last season, waiting for the right man to come along. He opted for Stephen Pears,  a reluctant assistant manager and another former Boro team-mate. But he carries a personality from a different planet to jovial Hignett and is too straight and too similar to Cooper in nature. 
With Pears doubling up as goalkeeping coach, it also left Pools one short on the training ground. 
Cooper insisted he was more than happy to cope with the workload and responsibility of working with the strikers. Their scoring record this season indicates it wasn’t working.
In English football, only QPR have netted fewer than Pools this season, and they’ve played seven games to Pools’ 11. Five goals in 11 games, with 17 conceded (not forgetting six at Port Vale in the Capital One Cup).
Managed by a former defender who played at the highest level, Pools were expected to be a resolute side this season. Tight at the back, but not overly affluent up front. 
His big summer signings Matthew Bates and Stuart Parnaby, both former Boro compatriots of Cooper and Pears, haven’t worked out. 
Marlon Harewood, since signing in January, has landed four goals in 28 games. Aside from short cameos against Morecambe last season and Wimbledon this, his overall contribution has been negligible. 
Cooper’s signings have been predictable, limited, and, overall, not what has been needed. In his defence, the budget has been reduced as the owners stand back and watch from afar, limiting his options as the club cited Financial Fair Play rulings.
He has always been keen to tap into resources at the other North-East clubs, which should be applauded to a certain extent. Last season’s loan signings of Christian Burgess, Matty Dolan and Luke Williams from Boro deserve credit.
However, when he returned to his old club last month to get David Atkinson, who hasn’t appeared and is back at Rockliffe citing injury, it became all too predictable. 
Ryan Brobbel impressed at York last season in a side which was on form and on course for the play-offs. He started well at Pools, but the confidence has disappeared from his game in a struggling and impotent side. Bradley Walker has been out of form and needs to be taken out of the firing line, but options in terms of a midfield replacement are limited.
Cooper had a chance to make some real mark on the squad this summer, but the playing roster is instead weaker in strength, experience and numbers. Some of the players he retained are not good enough for the Football League and if a manager is judged by the strength of his substitutes bench then Cooper has long been in trouble. 
As a coach with a background in Academy football and developing younger players, Cooper arrived with a burgeoning reputation. A football thinker of strong principles, who wanted to get the ball down and pass it, perhaps in hindsight the rough nature of League Two wasn’t the place to try and play pretty football.
The likes of Jack Barmby and Williams last season weren’t really cut out for a relegation battle, but ultimately their contributions helped keep Pools up. Just. 
And that escape from the drop should have been a warning of what lies ahead. Pools have long been stagnating on and off the pitch, but nothing has been done to halt the rot from various quarters.
The club’s owners have been criticised recently, and not without justification. The chairman’s column in Saturday’s programme gave his perspective and, quite rightly, he pinpointed a number of organisations and factors for Pools’ demise. 
However, the time for excuses is gone and Ken Hodcroft cannot get this managerial appointment wrong. Equally, he has to be supportive of his new manager and give him a chance to succeed by allowing him a chance to work the transfer market and get some players of quality and experience in. 
Tellingly, Cooper directly told Hodcroft as much as he tendered his resignation on Saturday evening.
Cooper, to quit immediately after the game, proved he accepts the job was finished for him. As Carlisle’s second goal arrived, so the crowd turned on him, chanting in numbers for his removal. 
Back in 1996, Keith Houchen was hounded out of the club as floundering Pools were beaten at home by Brighton, then bottom of the Football League. He too resigned within minutes of the final whistle.
While Houchen has not been seen in football since that day, Cooper will return. He will be better for this chastening experience and he has a lot to offer the game. It’s a shame it won’t be at Hartlepool United, where plenty of other managers have tried and failed before him to work the oracle.