THERE'S been recent accusations of familiarity breeding contempt around Hartlepool United. Too many players being part of the squad for too long and relegation was the consequence.

There's talk of comfort zones and players going stale and you only need to use Gary Liddle as an example of what can happen when a player starts to swim instead of treading water.

After six seasons at Victoria Park, Liddle walked away from the club last summer and signed for Notts County.

His last season at Pools was, admittedly, a disappointing one. His first at Meadow Lane has been exceptional.

He played in every minute of every game, breaking a 35-year club record in the process and took home five awards at the club's end of season awards night.

Middlesbrough born and bred, Liddle spent the best part of a decade at the club's academy, one in a long line of players to make the grade through the Rockliffe Park finishing school.

He proved he wasn't afraid to take the plunge when he left the club he supports. Six years after his first change of club, his second has gone just as smooth.

There was the danger of a summer of uncertainty, but it didn't take long for Colin West, the former Pools assistant boss and then coaching at Notts County to make his move.

"It was a massive wrench to leave Hartlepool last summer, they wanted me to stay and offered me a good contract to stay which could have took me to a testimonial year,'' he admitted.

"But I had been there a long time, got a little bit stale and didn't want to get into a rut. My performances in the last season there probably went that way.

"I was mid-20, a good age and I felt I needed to get away from living in Middlesbrough and be myself.

"I left Hartlepool, didn't have a club to go to. At the time I left I was a free agent, about to go on holiday without a club for pre-season.

"Most people told me I was barmy to leave, but I felt I need to go to get my career back on track, so I wasn't just passing games by.''

After 283 appearances for Pools, he signed off with a goal in a 3-2 defeat at the League One champions. Pools have just been relegated, they still would have been if Liddle had stayed.

Pools are expected to confirm Colin Cooper's appointment as manager in the coming days and Liddle admitted: "Looking from the outside now and it looked a bit unstable after going down. It's no secret they probably had too many managers in too short space a time and the new one needs to have a good crack at it.

"I don't know enough about Coops as a coach, as I left he was just getting into coaching. But I hear fantastic things about him and maybe it's the right time for him.

"There's a good core group of players there, a decent base to start from and hopefully get off to a good start. I signed in League Two, we got promoted and had a bus tour around the town which was great.

"I had an amazing six years there, I'm no enjoying my football again unlike the last season at Hartlepool when I went a bit stale.''

Liddle was part of Boro's successful FA Youth Cup winning squad of the mid-2000s, a group who went onto make successful careers for themselves.

But they all had to leave the Riverside at some stage and Liddle admitted: "I left Boro when some big players were ahead of me, since then I've learned how to play mens's football if you like.

"As a player at Boro I hoped to make it to the first-team, we all want to play. But as I got to 20 I realised that if I was going to get a chance at Boro I would have to get ahead of the likes of Mendieta, Boateng and the like - realistically it wasn't going to happen.

"I'd been injured, seriously with a back injury, and went away to Portugal with Boro pre-season and then Gareth Southgate said Hartlepool wanted me.

"It was a difficult decision, I'd been at Boro ten years, and Hartlepool had been relegated to League Two and lingering. But Danny Wilson had watched me a while and said he was desperate to get me at Hartlepool.

"First-team football won it for me. I loved it there from the second I signed.

"I always wanted to be a footballer, and be a success. I'd like to think we had success at the club.

"I'm very lucky to have played every week there and it was a great time for me.''