There seems to be a mental block on giving Umerah a game, but personally I’d like to see him on instead of Grey. He’s a more combative player and physically stronger where it matters, some may disagree, but I’d like to see him back in the team… if you’ve got a proven asset, use it.
Like I said, opinions differ but I just can’t for the life of me see the sense in not playing him.

Every time I see Umerah play I get the impression that he gets nothing from the referees and I've yet to see an exception. It's as if there is a general agreement amongst them to stifle him. Yesterday was no exception. I thought yesterday's Ref was having a decent game, until Josh came on. I know Josh dishes it out but every single challenge yesterday went the way of the opposition when Josh was involved. He was pulled and tugged all over the place, sometimes in front of the Ref but was given nothing.
I don't know but it's like there is a pact and no referee wants to break ranks. All sorts of tackles get ignored, like the one which crippled Doddsy but as soon as josh gets anywhere near the action he gets pulled up.
It's coming to the point where you begin to think he is verging on being a liability and maybe JA is leaning towards that as well.

Umerah for me, proved he can score more goal, physical and stronger than Grey.
Unfortunately the problem with Umerah is, he gives away to many fouls by getting sucked into stupid challenges, where the defender goes down easy and ref gives a foul against him. He needs to learn to back off a quarter of a yard and let the defender look like a fool for cheating.

Needs to concentrate on being a footballer rather than a wrestler, got to agree he gets f*ck all from referees - there was a challenge on him yesterday which resulted in him being launched and the ref waved play on. I agree it does seem to be every ref too.

This may sound naive, but yes you do notice Umerah is a marked man by ref’s or paranoia is setting in…..but if it’s that obvious, can the club confront the league over the issue…?

Big josh wears defenders down he's a good partner for any striker , I think joe needs to be on the pitch also possibly given a go as a wide midfielder. Pace and strength need adding to the side

Which is why he has to be on from the start, wearing down opponents needs to be from the off, not expecting a player to come on from the bench and have the same impact.

it should be a choice between umerah and wreh for me and grey should not be coming into the disscusion in that position alongside of manny d. sorry about joe but he is not my type of player.

He was one with potential, but I don’t see it being fulfilled to be honest.

Go to 4 3 3 and play both.
Then FBs will be FBs, CBs will be CBs
4 across the middle
And Gray,Josh and Mani D up top.

If those 3 up top can,t cause problems then no one will.

Sorted.

Not sure what you mean because you said 4 3 3 but then said 4 in middle

How many players have Pools had who showed potential and moved on to have a successful career at a bigger clubs, Houchen, Hutchison although it was said Liverpool bought Hutchison to help Pools out with tax bill.Allon went to Chelsea but suffered an injury then moved on to various clubs before returning to Pools for £40000.

Both Linighan brothers, Rab McKinnon, Poskett, off the top of my head

Andy Linighan yes but not his brother Brian, 5 years at Sheffield Wed with only one appearance eventually ending up at Worksop Town and Whitby, Poskett had 1 season at Brighton before going to Carlisle then Darlington or McKinnon who ended up in Scotland playing for Motherwell.

Surely that is neither here nor there. They moved on to better clubs at the time, their potential realised albeit briefly.
I was referring to Grey’s contract and most folk saw him as one for the future…but the jury for me remains unconvinced with that prediction.

Brad Walker was but who should have done better.p

Don't remember Brian Linighan playing for us, but then again memory's not what it once was. The brother I was referring to was David who went on to be a regular in the Premier League for Ipswich I think.
Poskett went on to a higher level and did well for himself, I'm sure I recall him scoring more than once on MOTD.
Didn't McKinnon play in Europe for Motherwell and for the Scottish national team?
Andy Linighan had a great career at the highest level and would probably have had a couple of caps if he'd played for Man Utd or Liverpool.
Going forward, if Dodds and Manny can get back to their pre injury levels they can have decent careers I'm sure, and there's a decent player in Pruti imo.

Malcolm Poskett was a really nice quiet lad, I served my apprenticeship with him and even at that age you could see he had talent.

Maths was never me strong point.lol

Poskett had a footballing brain.

I,ve seen him stand players up in the penalty area then leave them for dead.

Poskett went to Watford and scored for fun.

Would've been world class with a bit more pace, but that's the reason we got him from Whitby I suppose. Think it was the legend Billy Horner who signed him.

If my memory serves me right we signed Poskett from Whitby and released him after one season. He then went non league to Horden and was knocking goals in for fun when Horner brought him back to Pools

thing is everyone is digging out the history books about these lads. who was the last pools youth kid who went on to have 100 starts for the club even if they never pushed on any higher. it was a gamble giving joe grey a three year contract though just in case he did push on with us but not good enough for league 1 and above.

The football equivalent of a shooting star, burns brightly briefly then fades.

Pools gave him a 3 year contract in the event another club wanted to buy him therefore they would have to buy his contract out.

well he is in very good company then with players coming up from youth level. really wished i had kept the team sheets of under 18 league sides when i reffed or ran the line in those games. think the comment of the notts county youth team manager at the time summed it up. his side was close to the top of the league where all their players dwarfed me at 6ft 1inch but more with studs on. When i mentioned this he smiled and said none of em will make it but they,ve kept me in a job for another two years.