Well after all the doom and gloom of preseason the lads put in a good shift this afternoon. We could have been two nil up in the opening ten minutes.

We did everything but score, we all know that's our problem. The heart and spirit was on display today, giving the home keeper man of the match says everything to me.

In the circumstances it was also an excellent turnout from the pools fans, 551 made the journey.

Cut out the couple of errors at the back, convert one of the many chances and we won't be nailed on relegation candidates that every man and his dog has already decided we will be.

Well done pools.

Monkhouse & Horwood look like they have a good understanding - covering for each other - very pleased with commitment shown today

Commitment might be good but really you should be beating Rochdale who have lost half of the team which won promotion and signed a left back from Grimsby, I would be disappointed with that result to be fair.

i wouldn't. We are notoriously bad away from home and have had a frankly awful preseason with one thing or another.

A point and a clean sheet will do me just fine.

To put it in to some sort of context, Rochdale have been hit & miss most of this year. They were that far ahead that only a major slump in form would have cost them promotion. Even we beat them at their place. Add the fact they lost Dagnall & replaced him with a striker who didnt set the world alight at Grimsby, I would think that Dale will struggle. Mind you, any point away from home is a good point.

assuming this is not just a fishing expedition, i would like to ask both loids

"In what way are you qualified to discuss grown up league football, let alone league one football ?"

message ends

It was a game we could have won. Now although we failed to score, the Man of the match did go to their goalkeeper, who made decent saves in both half's, and from where i was sat the Boyd effort in the 2nd half was goal bound until deflected, and I reckon the Brown effort in the first half was going in till also deflected.

The fact is there were more positives than negatives from yesterday, we got a point, and I came away a bit more positive than I was prior to kick off that the season may not be as bad as I was expecting.

Having said that I expected far more last season after the opening day draw at MK.

If we close down and chase like we did yesterday, we can grind out points away from home, many people don't like 4-5-1, they think it's to defensive , well if it get's us points away from home I'm happy with that. I wouldn't like to play it at home having said that.

As Jack Charlton said as manager of Boro...... "It's not my job to entertain the fans when we're away. That's the home team's job"

what's that got to do with anything ? their assertion was that a draw away from home against rochdale is a disappointing result. my assertion is that they would sell their grannies to be even playing them this year.

certainly the backwards loid said it was a disappointing result, while loan star said that rochdale were hit and miss for most of last year. so hit and miss that they were promoted

and if, say, chelsea went to blackpool and drew 0-0, would that be classed as a good point for them ?

let me know if there's anything else you can't follow.

All in all a decent start by pools given their poor pre-season form, just a shame we didnt get the goal we deserved.

Not really interested in what rochdale did/didnt do last season, a lot of people expected us to slip up and the truth is, after an even first half, we completely dominated the 2nd, not bad away from home against any team on the opening day of the season.

I'm sure someone even suggested we'd get beat 5-0.

A couple of weeks ago when everyone had their arse in their hands, the suggestion of a 0-0 draw at Rochdale where Pools dominated would have been laughed out of court.

Now we don't yet know if Dale are to be challengers for promotion or relegated before the end of August so the result is meaningless in terms of judging the season but since time began a draw away from home has been a good result so lets just accept it for what it is and be satisfied that Pools for once went to an away ground and didn't lie down and die.

A decent point - but what was refreshing was the attitude of the players. There was plenty of fight and will to win and that is what we want to see. We need to be more clinical when we get chances but as has been said a point away from home is a good point...

As with any new season we will only be able to give a more accurate assessment of our chances once we've played a few more games especially games against teams who are more than likely going to finish comfortably in mid table without ever really looking like going up.

As happy as I was with a point yesterday it has to be bore in mind that we were playing another team who is heavily fancied to go down and having spoken to a couple of people who were at the game the general concensus seems to be that Rochdale will struggle.

I think the Yeovil match on the 21st August and Exeter game on the 28th are good games in which we can judge if our pre season fears were either justified or exagerrated as I feel both teams fall into the category I mentioned at the top.

Now that is a stupid reply if you think that all I watch is Darlington then something is wrong with you, I've actually been to see Boro, Newcastle and Sunderland quite a few times in my 25 years of watching the game.
Im pointing out that earlier when I posted that you will do well in league 1 and not get relegated, the signings Rochdale have made and the fact that they were playing their first competitive game together points to I think you should have won this one.

I think it was a good chance to get three points that's all. Good luck this season an' all.

bite my shiny metal ass dullard

hope that helps.

and got promoted

and they still got promoted

no, you said it was a disappointing result. don't try and reinvent history,

There you go Aido, try reading it properly before crticising!!