Report on the OS now.

Cullen went off injured very early in the first half. Hamstring

Luke Molyneux played and has signed a new contract. So did Francis-Angol but he's referred to as a trialist on the OS because the deal hasn't gone through yet for some reason.

Bit of a crap game
Ogle looked a decent player other than that......

Good interview from DC after. Not happy at all with the level of performance. He's the most critical part of the upcoming season. Be good to see him on a longer contract.

Yes Cullen went off after about 5 minutes after he hit an effort way over the bar. He has already signed a deal with Pools despite his injury record.

could have gone off as a precaution though rather than the full blown injury itself. in a friendly its sensible to take anyone off quickly no matter what.

in the mail today its stating days rather than weeks - but he does come with an injury record (not a good start is it IMO)

Not his fault but he even looks a bit like Luke Williams. DC says he'll miss the next 2 friendlies - so he won't be fit for the start of the League Two season.

It's a gamble. Trouble is, I'm struggling to remember when a Pools gamble on a player with a bad injury record paid off.

Gordon Watson?

Fair does. He signed in 2001 so let's hope we hit paydirt every 20 years

And hope he’s not the exception that proves the rule!

seems there was 2 other trialist forwards (one that replaced Cullen) and another already on the field that i presume partnered Olamola in the 2nd half ?

Friendly results count for nothing.
Transfer Deadline end of August so plenty of time to get a few more signings in.
UTP.

can you bring in loan signings after that for a few weeks longer. once the season starts i can see a couple of these being brought in when things settle down at clubs.

yes i believe so... sure DC already said the team would be padded out with loan signings - think it may be another season where we rely heavily on the loan market and 3 or 4 of the starting 11 are loanees. Apart from keeping Sterry and Feaths, the signings have not really excited me at all. We would of made those (albeit the striker) if we had stayed in the NL i reckon.

was thinking the same, however looking back to last season i doubt many of were excited about the new signings then or the others that came in before we saw them play. there were throught last season other clubs with better players or at least as good as ours. the thing is we had a team and not individuals. 11 lads of a similar standard all playing their part is far better than having a couple of top signings playing with crap round them. they end up being dragged down rather than an inspiration to the others.

The signings at the start of last season weren't particularly good, you could say they were cheap options. It looks like we're opting for the same route this year, let's just hope we get some great loan signings or it could be a very long season.

Yes i think you have hit the jimmy nail on the head there 100%, they played as a team and wanted it. Once that belief set in with confidence we where never staying in that league (albeit the ref being a poolie in the playoffs and Bennett missing a sitter, but hey ho we deserved the luck).

as Stockport have found out - put a L1 standard striker (prem in fact) in a shit squad or players who arnt on your level and you are as good as them. Happens alot at this league. Only Salford really managed to buy there way out and do it properly (maybe FGR aswell if i remember rightly).

lets hope there is a few more who come in and want to play out their skins for the club like the others did last season. I still think a GK is needed and another really quality striker. Also an attack minded CAM woudlnt go a miss tbh. Not sure what Smiths game is just yet.

Finally confirmed, hopefully he is fit for saturday!