Howey On Trial @ Hartlepool Neale Cooper will take a look at former Newcastle United defender Steve Howey over the next few days, as the 33 year old tries to impress the Hartlepool United manager with a short trial period. Howey's got bags of experience - but will Coops decide to take him on? Howey was of course a mainstay of the Newcastle defence and was on the fringes of the England squad; he left Toon for Manchester City for a £2million fee at the start of the 2000/1 season. Just over 100 appearances followed over the next three seasons, before he joined Leicester in the summer of 2003 for a spell that lasted just six months before he joined Bolton for the rest of the season - making just three appearances. His last game in the UK came in Bolton's 2-0 defeat to Middlesbrough in April last year. Now 33, Howey has four England caps to his name and upon leaving Bolton joined New England Revolution in the US Major League Soccer, but left at the end of November by mutual consent. Now he's managed to agree to train with Pools for a short period in the hope of impressing Cooper. Does Howey have much chance of earning a deal at Victoria Park? He's been a class act at a high level, but there are examples littered throughout the leagues of players that have dropped down towards the end of their careers and made nothing like the impact expected. Then again, he was playing in the Premiership just last season, and Pools could do with a bit of cover with the likes of Ross and Westwood still recovering from injury. Howey's fitness is something of an unknown - I'm presuming he's had a few trials elsewhere, but he will have been out of regular training for a while now and no matter how hard he's worked on his own I would expect him to take a little time to get up to speed. Even if Cooper does decide to take the plunge, I wouldn't expect him to offer more than a short-term deal until the end of the season, at least to start with; but with the Pools defence having looked a little shaky and short of cover, Howey is certainly worth a look
i will be fair and say he played to his strenghts he did though score the winner once against the smogs at Roker with a cracking bullet header
steve howey was an awsome defender with so much potential! if he had more pace and lived up to what he could have been he would have been partner to adams at the back for England.
He was a quailty defender, think he could do well in the lower leagues. Pool's up and coming players could learn alot from him! As far as lee Howey goes.....................................TOTAL GASH!! The chant was funny though, Never heard as many people say C**t at the same time before. Magic