MICK Wadsworth was always the reluctant manager. When the first-team coach replaced Chris Turner, in August 2010, fronting up Hartlepool United was the last thing he wanted.

"There are so many issues with taking a manager's job," he insisted.

"Working on the training ground is my first love, always was, and now I'm getting older I'm going back to spending more time there."

Yesterday, his time on the training ground, on what he called his 'natural habitat', came to an end as he left Pools.

He leaves with them in a relatively healthy 13th spot in League One. Last season, they were never in any danger of relegation after the previous two seasons ended in last-day survival drama.

This campaign there was every hope of a play-off push. After such an encouraging start - a record-breaking nine games without defeat from the beginning of the season - optimism was high; in the end it was another record that did for Wadsworth.

Seven home losses in a row - a stretch that included a solitary goal (and that a penalty) - is a run as uncomfortable as it is perplexing.

Pools have lost once away from home but have won only two at home. They have scored 17 times on the road but netted only seven in front of their own fans. Only leaders Charlton, who won 4-0 at Victoria Park, have taken more away points; only second-bottom Wycombe, who won 3-1 at Victoria Park, have earned fewer home points.

If the roles had been reversed then the problems wouldn't be such an issue. If results had been balanced out equally so, instead more people are watching at Victoria Park this season and it's hard to convince nearly 6,000 people who bought season tickets that Pools really are a decent and well-drilled side on the road.

The only away game the majority have witnessed was the 3-0 thumping at Notts County, a game televised live on Sky Sports for which Pools saved, by a substantial distance, their worst away performance.

Around 2,000 of the season ticket holders didn't turn up for the last home game, as Pools suffered another 1-0 home reverse.

They went into back-to-back home encounters with Yeovil and Preston on a high after controlling 90 minutes at Scunthorpe and recording a solid 2-0 win.

They came out of the double header without even scoring.

After the win at Glanford Park, scorer Andy Monkhouse jokingly turned a question towards him around and asked the questioning press how they thought Pools could resolve the problems. No-one inside - or outside - Victoria Park could comprehend the difference.

For all their hours on the training ground as Wadsworth drilled coaching routine after coaching routine into his players, no-one could come up with answers.

He tried altering the system on occasions and changed the personnel, as far as he could with what he had at his disposal. He admitted he was also in the firing line, saying: "We've got a huge problem we have to solve, we have to change things. There are only two or three things you can change in the game - I am part of that. We have to change."

Wadsworth was a bit prickly when asked about his future in the post-match press conference after losing to Preston.

Days earlier he was quoting Winston Churchill. And when he needed that fighting sprit, confidence was sapped.

Pools had a ten-minute second-half spell when they tried to claw their way back into the game, but it wasn't enough to avoid defeat against a team which had not won in 13 games.

Going into the game, the chairman's programme notes alluded to a change. Yesterday it happened.