Pools XI: Killip; Ferguson, Ogle, Liddle, Byrne, Sterry; Smith, Featherstone, Holohan; Olomola, Trialist (Dan Bramall)


Subs: J.MacDonald, Molyneux, Odusina, Francis-Angol, Trialist, Trialist, Close, Trialist, Crawford. The three triallists on the bench are set to be goalkeeper Shaun MacDonald, midfielder Olly Scott, for and defender Jake Lawlor.

Bramall is 22 and played 3 times for Barrow last season on loan from Barnsley, without scoring. As others have said, MacDonald is ex-Torquay. Olly Scott is 20 and has played for Blyth and South Shields, Lawlor is a 30 year old centre back who played 17 times for Harrogate last season.

Joe Grey is still recovering from last season's back injury, for anyone who's wondering what happened to him.

Shelton?

Shelton has took a knock

Pools sound shite today. Midfield isnt working

4-1 defeat. Got tickets for Blyth on Tuesday night so will reserve judgement and hope Dave Challinor can shake things up a bit.

Listened to the second half at Gateshead and the team performance sounded half-arsed at best. Not like a Challinor side at all.

I listened to the commentary all the way through. Robbie Stelling was the co commentator. Sounds as if he wished he'd stayed at home !
Even Alex found it hard to find any positives. Sounded like the "triallist 11" did as well as anyone.
My nephew went to the game & reckons we're 4 players short of starting the season !
Hope DC has a big contacts book !

We are miles off having a squad good enough to really compete just now. Still need a good 4/5 new players. The squad is currently a lot weaker than what finished the season. Obviously early days and hopefully many players still to come in

DC has walked is the rumour worrying times

DC will not have walked over a preseason game. Give your bastard heads a shake !

He knows we are miles off it. But he has 2 weeks to loan in a decent defender. Another midfielder and 2 attacking players

Ive said for ages Killip isnt good enough. The Midfield isnt strong enough ! Up top. Fuck me. Be lucky if we get a goal every 4 games.

If we dont sign another 6 players worthy of this league we are fucked !!!

Let’s remember our forwards at the start of last season. Bloomfield,Parkhouse and Ofosu so keep fingers crossed DC can bring some decent players in quickly.

I honestly think he is relying on the loan market now to make up the basis of our squad. Smith today wasnt good enough. Why we bothered with him.

Fela looks decent and so did his strike partner. But we need more going forwards.

Lids even said post match the defence isnt good enough. I dont think Either of our left backs are L2 standard. We are in for a shock unfortunately

We must get the quality in to survive if we go down again that’s the end

It's probably good that the weaknesses are being exposed at this point, if we were fudging our way through a few misleading results that would be worse. I'm of the opinion if we start the season badly it will force us into strengthening our weak positions.

I wish I could share your confidence but it's right out of character for Dave Challinor to do something like that. I'm inclined to think him leaving early was a message for the Chairman as much as anything else.

Apart from taking Byrne off Halifax we are scratching around with players who have never made the grade with Football League clubs and are lucky if they've played 20 games or so in the NL or NLN. He's taking a massive punt with all of them.

It's obvious from comments made recently that DC won't discuss a contract extension for himself till he's satisfied he's got a competitive squad. To be honest I think he's more likely to walk before the season starts than to stick around and be the patsy, sacked by Raj 20-25 games into the season.

Do you like to blur realty.....?

You have a masterful grasp of the situation.......NOT! seriously.

Raj needs to put his hand in his pocket big style. Secure the manager and secure some quality. As stated above, we look to be scratching about again for players. The players on the bench yesterday …kid from Blyth and some random from Barnsley. Did any of them even get on ?

my main fear at the moment are the signings we have made are the same ones clubs like halifax might have been making. these are not the ones you would expect a division 2 side to be making. even the ones from last season will not all push on to this new level. think any points we get in august will be a real bonus before we are able to bring in decent loan players who usually appear once the season has actually started. obviously the players who played yesterday will not all be first choices but at the moment we had far better in that relegation side than we have now.

DC is no mug and so I'm afraid that I share your worries. He has a good record at present - and Raj could destroy that.

Is this the ‘Crash and Burn Virus’ epicentre? Can it be contained by isolation, or would some people (for the purposes of masochistic arousal) be quietly pleased if things did go tits up....?
Or .......
Is it the annual call of the ‘Lesser spotted we’re going down if we don’t splash the cash bird’ as it migrates back to the Vic after it’s summer break at Gloom on the Wold, building it’s nest in the usual place and cackling about doom and gloom and going down....?

there will obviously be some who cannot wait to post if pools prop up the league with a points tally like a british eurovision entry. overhearing comments outside the vic making you wish you had never bothered to turn up. anything posted now on the player situation may be totally irrelavent in a few weeks time with a bit of luck anyway.

Aslong as DC hasnt fucked off by then

It’s very early days. A few decent loans and a couple more signings plus having the fans back at The Vic and we’ll be right.

I think the situation is well known at the club and I'm sure they are all busy beavering away to get us as competitive as they can, as soon as they can.
DC has his priorities and they mainly lie with the single intention of putting out a team capable of beating Crawley on Aug 7th and that is why contract discussions between himself and Raj have been put on the back burner. To me that is a sensible approach, not forgetting that he is under contract for another season anyway.
We will have a better idea how far and how much the manager has progressed with his priorities at 5 pm on Aug 7th.
I don't think a return to the hell of non league football and all that goes with it is anywhere near the agenda sheet.
We have no other option, as fans, than to wait and see and trust that it will come good and back Raj and DC to make the right decisions.
After all in the short time since they both arrived at the club, we've made huge progress so I can't imagine that they'll allow all that effort to go down the pan.
All I ask is that we are kept in the loop.
Our contribution will take effect when the players feel the blast of support as they take the field in two weeks time approx.
That is the bit we are good at, so I humbly suggest we concentrate in that area.
Owners, managers and players come and they go but we are there forever.

Two weeks is a long time in football.

[quote="derwent"]
After all in the short time since they both arrived at the club, we've made huge progress so I can't imagine that they'll allow all that effort to go down the pan.
All I ask is that we are kept in the loop.


correct about the progress but football in general is not good at keeping fans in the loop. good at giving out good news but pretty poor with anything bad and slow to squash bad rumours that circle around.

Didnt Raj say this season he would be more transparent and would have a member of the trust at meetings and key events etc. Not seeing any of this just now.

My 'source' who has been pretty accurate over the last couple of years tells me that DC is stalling on his own contract negotiations as he is still unsure of the clubs ambitions under RS. He was frustrated that 3 key players whom he had turned from near obscurity into game changers had been allowed to leave to join clubs like Port Vale, Harrogate & Mansfield Town, when all had expressed a willingness to stay....as always, it all came down to money (the agents late demands relating to Oates were still negotiable). He subsequently has been forced to start the same process again, shopping in the bargain basement of the NL, & for players released from EFL 2 clubs who could not make a mark. If things don't improve & our first 10 games prove to be dismal as a result of the recruiting limitations, then (& this is simply my opinion) I would expect him to walk before pushed, with his integrity intact & his prime target of promotion achieved....Be in no doubt that there's are others watching, who are sympathetic to his situation should he become available.....

Yes indeed but I'll keep on asking. I think football in general has realised the importance of the fans a bit more during this pandemic. I think more fan involvement is being discussed now and there is a definite possibility that legislation just might follow to effect more transparency. Small steps but it's a start.

dc has done well in my opinion since he has been at pools pre season results have not been good lets be honest but I'm sure he and the team will become better I think he is a winner and we need a winner.

Staying up will be a bigger achievement than last season.
End of the day it's 11 v 11 in the 4th Division.
I'm sure we will stay up then build a team year on year to reach Project25!
Keep the faith n sing u hearts out for the lads.
UTP.

I would imagine that DC's aims and ambitions will eventually lead him to regard his future to be elsewhere and if there are watchful eyes coveting his services (and I don't doubt there are) the chances are he will go. He saw Pools as a potential step into the football league and he has achieved that ambition and it was Raj who gave him that chance.
Unless an owner, with exceptional wealth to offer, steps in, we will always be potential victims to predators. Even then our best players and backroom staff will be tempted to so called better themselves, whether it be a higher division, a bigger club or more money or a combination of all three.
It is a fact of life that the more relative success we achieve the more the vultures will hover.
DC will go, it's just a matter of when. The more success the likes of Pools have the more attractive the people who are deemed to be responsible for that success become. To enjoy the former you have to be prepared for the latter.

We 'allowed' Armstrong to join Harrogate did we?
We had no say in the matter,Salford didn't even give us chance to sign him.

I'm sure they did give us the chance. We just had to offer him competitive terms and we chose not to.

Lets see how the three players you hinted at progrees as the season goes along.
If it hadn't been for DC i think the three players concerned could have easily drifted
into obscurity.

last i heard Oates was playing at the front end of a midfield diamond, With two attackers ahead of him.

I think it is unfair to criticise the club over the three players who left. Cass is a Newcastle player and it was their choice he went to Port Vale. Armstrong was a Salford player and we just could not match what Harrogate offered. As for Oats DC intimates we offered him good terms but obviously Mansfield offered better and if it wasn’t them someone else would of.
We have to accept we have a budget to keep to. We can’t just keep asking Raj to get his hand in his pocket

Looking back it was a minor miracle we got back in the EFL.
Given the fact it's a juggling act payin off debts to former owners and trying to get it right on the green surface.
A combination of a great team effort by players staff chairman n fans being UNITED played a massive part in last season's triumph.
Anyway I'm still buzzing from promotion to start looking for negatives.
Let's get the Vic rocking on August 7th.
UTP.

It’s not hard to spot the difference between you and a ray of sunshine. Jeeeez.

Not sure that I agree with the reasons why the three left, but I agree with your sentiments and logic.

DC is critical - but he is a class act - he must fear being tarnished with 'unavoidable failure'. And whilst the 'it will be alright when the loan signings arrive' logic is appealing, let's get real.

And those who do a message telling me to sing can do one. I'm not negative, I'd be happy with third bottom - well, not happy, but satisfied. We just need to stay in the proper league. And telling folk to get behind the team is simply deluded. We will get behind a team, any team, but not a bunch of losers.

No they didn't Challinor said so himself.

Couldn’t agree more with this!

Agree. It always makes me laugh at the number of supporters whose experience of running a business is equal to my Patterdale, yet are free with their ‘advice’ on how to spend someone else’s money with the gayest of abandon.

Raj out !!! Hearing what i now know from an insider on the clubs payroll. We should be very concerned. Mans a fool. Doesnt know the first thing About running a football club in the pro leagues. Fucked darlo And about to fuck us. Wont back DC as he is being too tight and Also has just brought in a yes man to run the club as his puppet. Wait for the Annoucement this week. Im not wrong, those inside the club are worried and pissed off hes not running things properly.

Ryan Johnson, not Cass…..

Oates and Johnson were a case of easy come, easy go. And we were never really going to match what Salford and Harrogate could offer Armstrong anyway.

As much as Pools may of became "poorer" since IORs sale, people must understand that the League Two landscape has evolved dramatically in the past 4 or so years. It's now the new normal for clubs to be ran completely unsustainably. Be they banking on promotion ALA Bury, or buying players despite no form of income outside a wealthy owner, like Harrogate Town or even Fleetwood.

Are you gonna step in.....?

DC has got to take the approach of a young Brian Clough and understand that unfortunately he's going to have to take the "silk purse out of a sows ear" mentality, taking cast offs and hopeless tasks and moulding them into a '68' team of effective nobody's who can frustrate and match the best in the division, we don't have much cash but we'll make up for that with hard graft and application is the only way we'll survive next season.

I agree, the problem is he's already effectively done that last season. Can only imagine how draining it is on him.

Our playing budget clearly isn't increasing significantly. It was a sone feat to get us out of the National League with it. Going to be tough again this year. If Raj can't/won't spend extra money that's fine but I think expectation amongst supporters needs to be at realistic levels. I'm not even sure DC will hang around to see how this ends. Anyone know what Ronnie Moore is up to these days?

facts are we gained 1 million pounds in promotion cash (how this gets spent / when it gets paid is anyones guess) plus the sale of Brand Young, we absolutely have some money to spend on at least 1 or 2 decent signings. If/When this happens we shall find out within the next 2 weeks. Also see how the new 'Yes' man gets on with DC. But i fully understand now why DC is stalling on his contract. Raj wont spend any cash (thats a given) so we just have to look forwards to DC working his magic in the loan market. If that doesnt work then this squad isnt 'now' currently better than what we had last season, im sure you would all agree.