WE are still yet to win a home game this season at Hartlepool which is very frustrating. But Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Mansfield was still a step in the right direction for us as a team. It was our first clean sheet of the season and it was also a game we should have won. We missed a number of chances which is the most disappointing aspect of the game. So far we have been scoring goals and looking dangerous in every game while defensively we were a little suspect. But against Mansfield our defence was brilliant and hopefully that’s something we can build on.
This weekend we couldn’t have asked for a tougher game as we travel to league leaders Plymouth Argyle who have won their last six league games in a row and only conceded two during those six games.
Plymouth were unlucky to lose out on promotion in the play-off final last May and after losing their first two games it looked like it was going to be a tough season for them. But they have really changed that around. We will do a lot of video analysis on Plymouth during the week to see where their weak points are and hopefully we can get the three points.

Europe
The Champions League and the Europa League got underway last week and while there were some great performances from Barcelona, Man City and Leicester in the Champions League, and Feyenoord against Man United in the Europa League, it was all about one team for Irish fans and that was Dundalk.
They put in an unbelievable performance away to AZ Alkmaar to get a 1-1 draw and grab the first ever point by an Irish side in the group stages of the Europa League. They did it the hard way too with Ciaran Kilduff scoring very late on when Dundalk were also down to 10 men.
The best thing about the performance was that the players weren’t overawed by the occasion and they also didn’t look out of place against their Dutch counterparts. They have a tough group with Zenith St Petersburg and Maccabi Tel Aviv their other opponents but I’m backing them to cause another couple of upsets in the group and do themselves justice in Europe.
Over the past few years they have been the best team in Ireland by a distance and they have done very well to hold on to some of their players. Daryl Horgan and Sean Gannon are two players who will go on to play at a higher level in the very near future while their goalkeeper Gary Rodgers was called into the last Irish squad as a reward for his great performances.
In the next Irish squad, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of the players get a call from Martin O’Neill even if it is just to have a look at them up close. Their European exploits will give the club a massive cash boost with the draw against Alkmaar giving them €20,000 more than they will receive for winning the League of Ireland.
That doesn’t seem right and I think the FAI need to give teams more funding or bigger incentives to try and compete on the European stage with Dundalk. Dundalk have a better chance now to try and keep their top players and tie them down to longer contracts so if a club from England do come in for them they will at least get a decent transfer fee for them.
Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny has done a brilliant job there after a very difficult spell as Shamrock Rovers manager.
He has done a great job everywhere else he has been since he started off at Longford Town and he turned them into cup specialists and he brought European football to Longford. Just before I signed for Grimsby Town a year ago I got a phone call from Dundalk assistant manager Vinny Perth (who is a former team mate of mine from Shamrock Rovers) to see if I was interested in signing for Dundalk and speaking to Stephen Kenny.
While I was obviously flattered with their interest, it just wasn’t right for me as I didn’t want to come back home to Ireland. I still think it was the right decision because I had the best season of my life last year with Grimsby scoring 37 goals and I got to play at Wembley twice in a week with the biggest highlight being the promotion win.