Not scapegoating, but that was a weird game. I remember it been fairly chilly on the morning as I was up at Willington. Next thing we knew a lockdown was happening and for a long while no one really knew about the seasons future. Day definitely had a gloomy aura about it.

While Pools did lose a few games this season, that Torquay game was honestly the only performance I found bad. The rest were very, very narrow loses. It really does stick out like a sore thumb in comparison to our other games.

games like that usually happen to all teams throughout a season. its usually away when it does happen though. even in an average season a team will hammer somebody and get hammered itself. even those at the bottom have a mini run of good form like the top teams have a bad run.

https://www.torquayfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13711
So bitter!

Yes but we felt the same after the Cardiff game. The penalty against Westwood was questionable but Westy did put his hand on him so inviting a foul and therefore a penalty. After that we called Crossley all the bung taking twats on Earth when in reality he simply called a 50/50 decision the wrong way.

true, but its took us a bloody long time to redress the balance and have something going our way for a change.

Can we have the £2million that the opening poster on that Torquay thread believes is due ?

As for the long delay in treating their injured player. Johnson is a very experienced manager, so why didn't he tell the physio to get the player off the pitch while Pools were still under the cosh? That break in play helped us, but Torquay could have taken quicker action, despite the player's own protestations of wanting to continue

Surely he should have been off the pitch to have stitches put in. Play with 10 men or bring a sub on. They manipulated the situation to try and get him playing again, mostly at the players insistence.

Very glad that they made that mistake.

Will make a nice bookmark this .....

Still have chills thinking about it and it all feels like a really vivid dream...

The kind of thing that stays with you forever.

Correct. The penalty shoot out (to me) was worse than Tranmere away to get to the league one play off final. Yes it was great to get to that final, but returning to the EFL was for more important, as the conference is one tough league to get promoted from.

After all the fretting about being stuck in the National League for donkeys years or even worse, dropping down into the National League North, in the end Pools took only 4 seasons to get back into the EFL

Looking back on where we first met
I cannot escape and I cannot forget
Challinor you're the one
You still turn me on
Hartlepool are home again...

bet those big spenders at wrexham and stockport will be crying into their cheque books if they do not follow shoestring pools this season. be nice if they both fail.