Reading a lot of the posts, and the disgruntled moanings of a shite season, and people offering recipes for success etc, and just wondered what the bunkers thoughts where on success, how far do you think a team like us can actually go, given our Geographical position, ground capacity, etc etc etc, in my opinon we will for ever bounce between, league 1 and 2 with maybe a quick flirtation with the championship, ive kind of accepted that, so a disaster for me would be dropping out of Div 2. success is a bit more of a mine field, i mean are we a successful club now ??? no arguments required or owt just a thought as to what peoples opinions are ?

Success for Pools is stability in League One with the hope of flirting with the play-offs now and again. But unfortunately, some people on here would have you believe the exact opposite.

Colchester, Blackpool, Scunny and Barnsley are all clubs that aren't much different from Pools in terms of stature yet have all had a decent bash at the Championship between them in recent times. With IOR at the helm, I don't think we should be wanting anything less than League One play-off football in this division because the standard isn't that high at all IMO and we've held our own against the best in patches.

right you wingeing tw@s
this season has been our THIRD most succesful season ever if we finish 15th
apologies for forgetting 91/92 when we finished 11th
so our fourth most successful if we finish 15th

i was asked by a sunderland supporting colleague today how this season rated against past seasons in terms of league position and courtesy of madjohns site i was amazed to find out
if we finish 16th we are 4th equal so worst case scenario finish 17-21 and it is still our 5th best ever season

i still stick by my point that this season has been successful

Someone once said that "In the conflict between the desirable and the possible, the possible always wins"

Mind you when i once fellover as a kid and cut my knee I was also told that "if the blood runs to your ankle you die"
Fook me, have you ever tried running with one leg in the air?

Maybe to your dissapointment No6 but so far non of the above have been winges !! they all (apart from you answered the question
EDIT...FFS mutts answer the question

Even if we hang in to 15th, has it bollocks. Go do the research.

Oh all right I'll do it for you. And I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and discount the FOURTEEN times we finished higher than 15th in Div 3N!!

1968-1969: 22nd in 3rd division
1991-1992: 11th in 3rd division
1992-1993: 16th in 3rd division
1993-1994: 23rd in 3rd division
2003-2004: 6th in 3rd division
2004-2005: 6th in 3rd division
2005-2006: 21st in 3rd division
2007-2008: (perhaps) 15th in 3rd division
2007-2008: (perhaps) 18th in 3rd divison

So at best 4th best, at worst 5th best.

But since we are into figures, you could look at another way:

After 1st promotion: finished 22nd
After 2nd promotion: finished 11th
After 3rd promotion: finished 6th
After 4th promotion: finished somewhere between 15th and 18th.
Or on average, somewhat worse than we are used to.

right to make it easy to understand

only the finishes in the highest division we have been in are relevant
div3north finishes are basically div4
league 2 finishes are div4
the finishes in the old div 3 and league 1 are the relevant finishes all the rest are just smokescreens

lets not confuse success with enjoyment
now that is a totally different story

thank you for pointing out the error i had inadvertently made i have now amended my original post

Er, because it gives us a fifth crack at the whip? And because we can giggle as the team just beneath us who goes down is some fallen giant or another.

I feel I speak on behalf of a majority when i say the following:

Its not a matter of success or failure. But all the "whinging" as you put it would probably have been non-existant should Danny Boy have played his strongest side and players in their correct positions. OK Sweney done well when he played right back, but he is no full back and should he have come up against a decent left winger he would have been murdered and made a scapegoat.

If DW had played people in the right positions and his strongest side, and didnt tinker with the side too much, and we got beat then we would hold our hands up and say ok the opposition were the better side. Its just irritating to see a poor side fielded people out of position.

Does that make sense?