Player Of The Decade #2: Dimi Konstantopoulos

Our countdown of the top 10 players of the past decade continues, remember you can leave your comments and favourite moments in the comment box at the bottom of this article.

2. Dimi Konstantopoulos

The giant Greek keeper was signed by Neale Cooper and became a huge hit with Pools fans, many believe him to be the greatest keeper of all time to play for Pools and he takes the number two spot in our countdown.

He was a striker’s worst nightmare, despite his big frame he had quick reactions and proved to be an excellent signing. It took a while for him to break into the first team due to the superb form of Jim Provett.

He started an LDV Vans Trophy game against Hull in November 2004 and saved two penalties as Pools advanced to the next round. He made 33 further appearances that season, In this time he kept 12 more clean sheets including saving 2 penalties in the play-offs semi-final shoot-out at Tranmere to send Pools to Cardiff.

Dimi was the penalty king. He will be most remembered for Hartlepool’s nerve racking crucial penalty shoot-out at Tranmere but he had a tremendous record when facing spot kicks. He saved 12 of the 41 penalties he faced while at the club.

2 years later and in League Two, Dimi was part of the record breaking team that went 23 league games unbeaten. Dimi kept a staggering 26 clean sheets, and was soon attracting interest from a higher division. Dimi was touted for moves to practically everywhere as Coventry had a £100,000 bid rejected in January.

He would stay at Victoria Park for a further 4 months before completing a move to the Ricoh Arena. He failed to make the same impact at Coventry as he did at Pools and spent time on loan at Cardiff and Swansea and is currently #2 to Keiren Westwood. He was linked with a move back to Pools in the summer of 2009 and it’s expected he will return to Victoria Park in the future.

Our Favourite Moment
Pools travelled to Edgeley Park on the back of a 20 game unbeaten run, a point would break the record but in typical Pools fashion it looked like the chance to enter the history books would be squandered. 3-0 down after 36 minutes it looked like the dream was over.

Andy Monkhouse pulled one back for Pools before a Ritchie Barker double levelled the scores and all was well until referee awarded the home side a dubious penalty with just 15 minutes left. The penalty was scored, then retaken and Dimi dived down to his right to keep the scores level and send the 2,000 away fans wild.

Click here for our Player Of The Decade page where you can find out more about the other players in our countdown