HOW you view Friday night’s 3-3 draw will depend very much on whether you are a ‘half glass full’ or a ‘half glass empty’ person.

Those of an optimistic bent will revel in the awesome football that resulted in Town going 3-0 up in 50 minutes and the eye-catching performance of striker Simon Cox, who has hardly put a foot wrong all season and scored his first professional hat-trick.

The doom merchants will rail at the inability to finish the game off when clearly the superior side, especially when the dominance was, for once, turned into goals.

Town turned on just the kind of ‘silky football’ that manager Malpas insisted we would NOT be playing when he set the team up (no McNamee) to grind out a result.

To the 139 loyal souls who made the long journey to the North East it will have felt like a defeat because you can bet your life that the Hartlepool fans left the ground with a warm glow after getting out of jail with a 90th-minute equaliser.

There was utter disbelief when the news filtered through that we were 3-0 up, whereas the final score did not come as any surprise for those who had watched strong positions thrown away at Hereford and Cheltenham.

Two of the major talking points were Coxy and Phil Smith.

The majority of Town fans would agree that Simon Cox has been our best signing in years.

We were all expecting him to knock in 20-plus goals this season and right now he is way ahead of schedule with nine in all competitions. Remember, he was prolific in pre-season as well.

He clearly showed he is more than just a ‘fox in the box’. All three goals came with shots from distance after mazy runs – two with the right foot and one with the left.

But, and here comes the ‘half’ glass empty’ scenario, he is an ambitious lad who rightly wants to get back to playing at a higher level.

I thought we would get at least a full season out of Dennis Wise – statistically the best manager we have ever had with a wins-to games ratio of 66% -- but that never came to pass.

Equally, I wonder whether Coxy will be at the County Ground after the January transfer window.

What must he think of a defence that manages to undo all his hard work?

And central to that defence is the display of Phil Smith.

Regular readers will know of Town Flier’s view that he is an inferior goalie to Peter Brezovan and not even his greatest fan can excuse his latest howler.

What should have been a routine take from a free-kick ends up dribbling over the line, an even worse fumble than the one against Leeds just two games previously. From cruising to victory at 3-1 with eight minutes to go, we are suddenly under pressure, and the rest is history.

Are Huddersfield going to be on the end of a drubbing when they visit the County Ground on Saturday or will the supposed ‘fear factor’ inhibit the team’s home performance again. With Swindon, you just never know.