I WAS at The Northern Echo Arena to see us lose against Northampton Town last Tuesday. I wonder if the Echo are told by the club how to comment on games.

To say the game was an improvement and a positive performance is something you would expect from a club trying to convince people they are doing well and not from a local newspaper. I thought the performance and game was rubbish and no better than the rubbish we have been forced to watch all season. Instead, for two days running in the Echo I read about how good we played.

Was your reporter watching the same game as the rest of us fools because I had to laugh when I saw our out-of-depth players all got 7 out of 10!

The way the article on Thursday was written was if as we are world beaters and not a team on its uppers and heading out of the football league as quickly as possible.

We are a rubbish team with a rubbish manager and it is about time the Echo realised it and said so.

Paul Newton, Darlington REGARDING the letter from Gavin Ellis (SHAS, January 25) about Hartlepool United being able to play the vast majority of matches in bad weather.

As a Hartlepudlian born and bred and a season ticket holder to boot, the sea has a lot to do with it and as the ground is no more than half a mile from the sea it is the salt air which keeps the snow, ice and frost at bay.

The town is built on artesian wells and this enables the area to drain much more quickly than normal. Hartlepool Golf Club and Seaton Carew are always the first opened after bad weather.

So the geographical location plus a great groundstaff gets the ground playable more often than not.

I wish you well for the rest of the season and know that it will be a fight to prevent you from dropping out of the Football League but if you do I know you have been there once before so you know you can do it.

Bob McNeal, Middlesbrough