This is The North East | Sport | Football

FEW have played as little football as Darrell Clarke this season, but few could have felt his anguish after the spectre of relegation for Hartlepool United loomed large.

Losing 2-1 to a scrappy last-minute goal at MK Dons on Monday put Pool second bottom of League One, four points from safety with three games to go.

Clarke was Pool's best performer, despite only appearing at half-time as he made his first appearance since mid-February.

The midfielder has appeared only ten times this season, after missing out completely last term because of knee problems.

He's one of a number of players out of contract this summer and admits he fears for his future.

"The whole season has been disappointing for me, I want to play, the manager knows I want to play, but I haven't played a lot,'' he said.

"I will keep working hard, keep training hard and hopefully I will get a chance. My contract is up at the end of the season and I want to stay.

"I am playing for my future, I want to stay or I could be on the dole. That's the reality of the situation. I have to perform when given a chance.

"I thought I did OK in the second half when I came on, but I look at the bigger picture and what does a decent performance from me mean when we have lost a game like that?''

Clarke's half-time arrival helped turn the game in Pool's favour. Michael Proctor's goal levelled the scores and a string of Pool chances went begging.

And Clarke, a �70,000 signing from Mansfield in 2001, is sick of hard luck stories.

"We know we were poor in the first-half. It was a massive game for everyone at the club and we can't have first-half performances like that. OK, so we were better in the second half, but you just can't play like we did in the first-half.

"Even then in the second half we didn't take our chances. We are not unlucky. We can't keep saying that every week. We've lost again and it's not good enough.

"It's not unlucky missing chances, it's not unlucky conceding slack goals is it? The winning goal rolls across the box and goes in off the far post. I'm sick of hearing that we were unlucky.''

Pool play Nottingham Forest at Victoria Park on Saturday in a game they must win to have any chance of survival.

And Clarke is expecting more from his team-mates: "We started playing some football in the second half on Monday after being way, way off the pace. We were one-down at the break and we showed where we are in the league with the way we played.

"It's a pressure situation and players have been feeling the pressure, it's only natural.

"But we are paid to play football and paid to feel the pressure. We get paid to do a job and we are not doing it, simple as that.

"It's not over yet, we are not going to give in and we will go right to the end - but we don't need any more performances like we did in the first-half on Monday otherwise we might as well give in now.'

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