taking the last 10 games of last season and add them to this (i normally hate looking at stats from end of season prior, but have anyway)

P 24
W 7
D 7
L 10
F 33
A 42

Average of 1.16 pts/game and 1.375 goals for and 1.75 against. Therefore if we concede more than we score it will point to losing more than winning, therefore, points that the defence is garbage.

end of

It really is amazing how we lose 2 or 3 games and the world is about to end. Take a step back, a deep breath and look at it with less emotion

For me the only question you need to answer is 'are we progressing?'

Now, I'm not talking about since last week, I'm talking about since Hignett took charge.

My own view is 'yes'.

Of course, progress isn't all one way all the time. But look at the squad, the way we can play when we get it right, the quality of some of the players. If the result on Saturday had gone our way along with other results, we could've gone 6th or 7th whichever it was.

I think Hignett will sort it out. The last thing we need to be doing is changing managers every two minutes. The players need to know that the gaffer has the board's and fans backing because then they know either they put a shift in or it's THEM that get's the boot, not the manager. If they think the manager is on thin ice, they have the perfect excuse to play below their capabilities.

Also, bear in mind who we have missing. Magnay is sooo much better than Richards. Bates and Nsiala are quality together. Jones and Nsiala aren't bad either and whilst Donnelly is decent enough, he's a kid so he won't be able to perform perfectly every game. He's also, arguably, playing out of position at centre half.

And as for those who booed Paynter on Saturday, you should hang your heads in shame. Please enlighten me when it's a good idea to boo your own fookin' players? Really motivational. Well done. Boo the decision to sub Amond, yes, fair enough if that's how you feel but the player coming on??? Really? Poor.

Who booed Paynter?

I think it was who was going off when most people would have brought Paynter on to play with Amond, not for him.

And another thing, look what Hignett inherited. He needs time to bring his own SQUAD in not just a couple of players here and there.

Thomas couldn't get a bloody game under Moore because of his inconsistency but look at him now. Yes he still has quiet games but nothing like he was under Moore so Hignett clearly has him more motivated than Moore ever did.

Hignett is doing ok.

My only concern is the excuses he's trotting out. He's starting to blame the players for everything.....which in my opinion is rarely a good thing.

Don't know their names

I was in the Town End and there was a definite pause after the initial boo to sub Amond, then another entirely separate boo when Paynter came on.

I could have it wrong but that's how I interpretted it...

Nah it had nothing to do with Paynter for me.

It was the exact moment I angrily started this thread as I was shouting the title quite a bit I'd have brought Paynter but Amond is the last player I'd have hooked.

Our fan's are doing really well to stay with us this season at the Vic', we lost our two home pre-season friendlies without scoring, have lost the only home cup-tie 1-0 to Sunderland U23's and have not won in the league, that's 10 competitive games without a win, dreadful really. Stamford up next

You're right, Thomas now is inconsistent. Had a good month, now 3 weeks through a bad one. Since he missed out on player of the month, what has he done to massively influence a game?

Three weeks ago he scored a contender for goal of the season at Grimsby.

A week later he won the penalty that Alessandra scored from after the keeper saved the spot kick.

Can't comment on Carlisle as couldn't go.

Saturday he had a quiet game but by the same token he didn't see much of the ball. Looked like he had two markers in the first half.

And all this off the back of two months where he's been class.

Thomas is the LAST player I'd be upset with.

He's also a flair player. Flair players tend to go missing in games for a while before turning it on for 10mins and winning a game.

My point was that he's definitely playing better under Hignett than Moore which I'm assuming is down to Hignett.

How you can question his influence is bizarre. He has without a doubt been the most influential player all season, by a country mile, yet he has had, in your opinion, a quiet three weeks and he's inconsistent. Name me any player who turns it on every week outside of the Premiershit or Championship.

I always try to see others perspectives but I will admit I am really struggling with yours.

I'm not going again until Thomas starts turning it on and scoring every single game.

I thought Thomas played well on Saturday, put in some good crosses,especially first half!

Thomas is the most consistent winger we've had since Compton!

GREAT POST!!!

What demotivates players ? Is everything hunky dory off the pitch ?

I think Pools fans are exceptionally patient given the shite we've watched over a long period.

Nobody was booing Paynter, some obvious frustrations cane out at who was being taken off. We have a lad on our books ago scored 37 times last season playing off a target man yet we're asking him to lead the line on his own week after week. Finally when he decides to play two up and bring someone on who can hold the ball up he takes Amond off, striker for a striker when are getting beat off a bang average team at home. I'm not sure how you can be critical of people who buy season tickets year on year for very little reward for showing understandable frustration. FFS we have not won at home and it's almost November, that is rubbish. Maybe it's time the players and management stood up grew some balls and gave us something decent to actually get behind because I can promise if they do, we will big time.

How long will the fans patience last?
This horrendous home form dosent look like ending.
Its nothing to do with a hoodo more like the players arent professional enough to be consistent.
And as soon as we slide towards the bottom again everything is a Work In Progress.
Patience Loyalty call it what you want but its becoming really boring now.
Starting to understand why quite a lot of posters do t bother going anymore.
Next season will be a few pick n choose games like most posters do!

Sure i heard Hignett on the radio saying that he doesnt have the players to play 442.
Karanka's influence maybe?

He got a squad of 32 players including the 2 loanies.
Would of thought finding the right system shudent be that hard.

Is 3 wins from our last 21 games a WIP.

Hignett tried 4-4-2 in the early part of the season but with Allesandra and Thomas out wide we were getting overrun in central midfield. The current formation suits the players we've got much better.

Personally I think Amond is doing alright as a lone striker in a 4-5-1, but however hard he works he's not a natural target man. It's up to team to keep the ball on the deck and pass the ball forward.

For me, the main issue at the minute is mental toughness. It's a young side (too young because of injuries) that tends to get beat if the opposition wants it more. Losing at home to teams that are on a bad run, as has happened more than once already this season, is piss poor.

From the sound of things Bates and Rob Jones are both more or less fit again and I wouldn't be surprised if Hignett plays them both on Satuday

Anyone know what happened to Heardman? Not on the bench against Orient..

He was rounding up cattle on the moors because Hignett gave his place on the bench to the influential journeyman that is Paynter!

I could be mistaken, but I have a hunch that you're not Paynter's biggest fan.

I`m not sure how you deduced that from a short sentence but yes, I cannot see what he brings to the team this year, he is not a leader, he doesn`t win a ball in the air, he gets knocked off the ball too easily and moans like a cheap hooker when he doesn`t get a foul, he is slow and has the touch of a rhino in heels.
Over to you for his strengths!

He has barely featured for two months. It's hard to bring anything from the bench. He scored 15 goals in 30 odd games for us last season how many strikers have we had who've done that in recent history?

I am basing this on this year, he was ok last year, he is on the bench for a reason.

It's funny because Scott Fenwick did all those things you've accused paynter of yet people kept calling for him to play! Paynter had a good season last year and when he was injured we really struggled, he's not had much of a look in so far but I think most fans would agree he's a good player still has something to offer.

He got injured and hasn't really started since he returned. You get the feeling he's the type of player who needs a few games to get match fit and sharp again, he's only had very limited time from the bench really. You don't go from being one of the first names on the team sheet to being of no use in a matter of months because in reality that is 'last year is' a matter of months ago.

i`d like to see tom heardman given a chance,he looks like he could be a real handful

Did you watch him against Sunderland? He was abysmal.

Then again, the Geordies always freeze against the Mackems.
Sunderland are doomed this season without their regular 6 points from the Bar Codes.

If Paynter needs games to get fit why not play him in the reserves? Personally I think it's a season too far. Even before his injury he just was not doing it.
As far as Fenwick is concerned I always thought he was only a Northern League player and as you can see he is not getting started at York City.

He only turned 32 in July, one season to far after a few bad games then an injury seems a little over the top to say the least.

Some players go on longer than others but without looking at records big centre forwards do not go on as say midfielders and defenders. He has in fact been playing first team football for 15yrs making about 350 games which is a lot for 'big strikers'
Believe it or not I was a big Paynter fan but he just looks worn out this season even in the game against Sunderland 'Youth' team he never got a kick.

Is that an admission that you attended that event?

Refuse to call it a match for political reasons.

I am glad though thay paynter did fuck all in yhat game. I consider that a protest. Well done billy.

I'm surprised this topic still has legs.... Surely the spleen has been vented by now.
We should be pacing ourselves over the full season so as venting can last year the course.

Excuse me Billy is a professional getting well paid who needs games to get fit. Why let some young kid show him up?

Don't be daft Snowy, proper spleen venting has an almost rhythmic quality. The defeats happen, the grumbles get going, the unheard from posters return to the board, the first shouts of sack the manager are heard...then we win and it drops again. This repeats a few times until January when a full post-Christmas "We're doomed" venting breaks out. Unless safety is secured quickly it turns into a massive self perpetuating orgy of rage that can only end in a volcanic eruption of spleen venting aimed at sacking the manager or owner, or both, and hounding anybody who disagrees. Unless we win a couple in which case everybody calms down again.

Trying to pace it over the season can't work unless we dominate the league.

Higgy is in the mail this morning talking about Amond struggling in his new role.. Apparently we do not have a target man here he can play off??

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sport/f ... -1-8199944

The problem for managers is home form and what you do in front of your own fans. Mick Wadsworth's final season is a case in point. Won 1st 5 games, one of funniest threads ever about him on here, away from great, 13th in League 1 and he got sacked in the autumn. Reason being a run of defeats at home, didn't matter that we didn't get outclassed our outplayed in any of those games and lost most of them 1 nil with some dreadful luck thrown in. Home form and disgruntled fans baying based only on results and not bigger picture did for him. This was the point we went into a decline I reckon and we have dropped like a stone since.

Message boards like at the match itself attract the noisiest reactions from the most reactionary individuals. Let's call it therapy and they can get it off their chests instead.

Can we not get Crouch on loan, he isn`t getting a game and if his wife comes to watch, BONUS!

Well to draw parallels with the Mick Wadsworth season Crouch and Colin Nish (or Amish as my spell checker originally called him) have similar physiques. I don't know how fit Nish's wife was though

Crouch can head a ball though and this is his bird!

To be fair, Mick Wadsworth, who was as likeable as he was honest, admitted in a radio interview that he'd run out of idea for how to turn things around.

Like asking for your P45.

He doesn't when he's the lone striker, which is what Hignett is getting at.

Things like this has always been the downfall of managers. Sign a player who is proven to flourish in formation A and then play him in Formation B which isn't to his strengths. It's fucking stupid. In January we must sign a proper central midfielder who can allow us to play 442 without looking like a bunch of know nowt school boys.

As I remember it, Mick Wadsworth ran out of ideas because he wasn't given any money to strengthen the team, and couldn't do any more with the team he had.

IOR sacked him for not having any money to improve the team, and then gave money to improve the team to the next manager.

I wouldn't disagree that the fundamental problem from about 2008 on was lack of investment in the team by IOR, but did Neale Cooper really have any more cash to play with than Wadsworth?

Most of the transfer budget in successive seasons was blown on the 'marquee' signings Nobby Solano (under Wadsworth) and Steve Howard (under Cooper).
I'm not sure how much say either manager had in those two decisions - the main motivation seemed to be helping IOR to shift cheap season tickets.

yeah maybe but sunderland are class...arent they?

A proper midfielder!? What's wrong with the 5 that we have? Who would you leave out to accommodate this proper midfielder?

We lose a game and then lose our minds, the midfield since we have started playing Hawkins and Laurent have been fantastic...with the exception of the Leyton Orient game and it still created chances that the front 2 failed to take.

Come on then cards on the table...

Either which of our midfielders are you or related to?

Everybody apart from monk seems to believe we need a strong midfielder. Yes someone has to make way. Which one is up to the manager just like the goalkeeper he has to pick one or the other this is what you call competition for places.