‘Unfortunate’ - Manager provides honest verdict after Newcastle United transfer decision

Jamie Miley joined Hartlepool United in the final few days of the January transfer window after being recalled from a loan at Newport County. The midfielder had struggled for regular minutes whilst at Rodney Parade and moved to Hartlepool in a bid to get regular first-team football under his belt.

Pools, who currently sit 9th in the Vanarama National League table, have recently seen a change of management with Anthony Limbrick taking over from Lennie Lawrence in a move that caught many fans off-guard. Miley scored on his debut for Pools, smashing home a last-gasp equaliser to rescue a point for them against Braintree Town.

However, since that day,he has not been seen again in the blue-and-white and has been an unused substitute during their last two matches - a win against Sutton United and a draw at home to Tamworth. Speaking about Miley ahead of Hartlepool’s clash with Maidenhead United this weekend, Limbrick admitted that Miley has been ‘unfortunate’ early in his career at the Suit Direct Stadium and believes that the midfielder still has a big role to play between now and the end of the campaign.

“He's been unfortunate,” Limbrick said. “His quality in training has been excellent, he's clearly a good player, he's hungry to do well.

“He wants to play, and I think it's only a matter of time before he does play. Since he came on at Braintree and scored, the plan was probably to bring him on at Sutton and to bring him on during Tuesday night's game. We didn't, for various reasons, and he's been really unfortunate.

“He'll play a lot for us and I really admire him as a player, he's just a good, technical footballer. He gives us something different to the other midfielders that we've got. I'm looking forward to seeing him very, very soon.”

Miley didn’t make a single competitive appearance for Newcastle United’s first-team before leaving the club last month, although he did play a big part during their pre-season preparations before heading to Newport on-loan.