Welcome back to Victoria Park for tonight's re-arranged League One fixture against Leicester City and we offer a very warm welcome to their Directors, management, players and fans that have made the journey up to Hartlepool for the second time this season.

Tonight's game was of course re-arranged from 3^rd January as it clashed with both club's FA Cup 3^rd Round ties against Stoke City and Crystal Palace respectively.

We also wish Colin West a very warm welcome back to The Vic. He has come in to help Chris in the dug-out and on the training field until the end of the season. We hope that the old "partnership" can get some positive consistency in our results (especially away from home). I would like to thank Southend for the professional way Colin's transfer to HUFC was handled and I also thank Micky Barron for doing an excellent job helping Chris over the last few games.

Last Saturday's game at MK Dons ended in disappointment as the home team hit us with two very late goals to steal the points after we had gone ahead through our new Norwegian striker, Rune Lange. MK Dons replied immediately to level but we matched them throughout the second half despite injuries and suspensions. As I have said before, we have a good squad of players and to still play well at MK Dons is testimony to that. However we need to carefully analyse why we are not able to hold onto points we have earned in such games.

It was good to see Rune Lange score on his full debut and he showed that he will give us the "presence" up front that we have missed since Richard Barker's departure. He is currently on a short-term contract until the end of the season, having previously played in Turkey with Trabzonspor, in Belgium with FC Brugges and for Norwegian clubs Tromso and Valerenga. He has also played for his country and if he remains free from injuries he should help our league position.

We now have scouts in Norway, Scotland and various other parts of the country and we are starting to benefit from this as more and more players are being identified at clubs that previously we have had no contact with.

There was an interesting article in the Sunday Times last month regarding a number of "disillusioned" Premier League stars. According to the article, Craig Bellamy was prepared to go on strike at West Ham to get his move to London rivals Tottenham. It didn't work but he did get his move … to Manchester City. Chelsea's Didier Drogba has shown a marked drop in form under Phil Scolari. It will be interesting to see whether he will "resume normal service" now that the manager has gone. It's amazing how often such improvements happen.

The same appears to be the case at Newcastle with Michael Owen rumoured to not be very happy there … but, according to the article, has said that he will stay until the end of the season. Then there's Ronaldo at Manchester United, who thought that he was moving to Real Madrid, also across the town there's Robinho at City. They both look like they want out of their clubs. Robinho's early enthusiasm has evaporated after it has become apparent that City are unlikely to be competing with Europe's elite next season.

Disillusionment appears to have even spread to Fulham where Jimmy Bullard, their energetic midfield player, felt that he was "unappreciated" there even though they might even qualify for the UEFA Cup next season - so he left for Hull City, a team that made a great start to the season but are now falling swiftly down the table. Football players remain a mystery!

However, the main reason that the article was written was to highlight the fact (which everyone already knew) that there appears to be no loyalty with some current Premier League "star" players. There is no sort of spiritual commitment to their clubs, to their teammates or to their fans. When will we ever see another Ryan Giggs who has now played over 760 games for one club? They do like to kiss their club badge though when everything's going right for them.

Enjoy tonight's game and get behind the lads again, as you did at the Walsall game in the second half. We need to start picking up three points from games and tonight would be the ideal game to start this. Beating the League leaders would surely give us the confidence to climb back up the table towards the play-off places and we can look forward to the Leyton Orient game on Saturday with the return of Adam Boyd and also, hopefully our other striker, Danny Nardiello.