Both Lacey and Murray embarrassing themselves in last 5 mins

ndjoli off didn’t know he was playing!! Common get the other four subs on

3-2 somehow

4-2 Paul smyth is some player at this level
Hartley v lucky we got 2 as this could have looked even worse

4-2

two not-very-good teams it seems to me.

Orient look a good side to me

Looks a bad one for umerah

Oh well, 3 more points but not exactly convincing, we'll see when we take on one of the top sides.
All the best for the rest of the season (except for one home game). Hartley looks the real deal so I guess you'll be fine. Thanks for the company.

Surely a piss take. Real deal? Real concern so far…

17 goals conceded in 7 games. 16 new players, arguably 2 look up for it so far.

Abject performance once more, poor body language and bickering between players. Murray dreadful. Orient pundits branding us an extremely poor team - no argument. Couldn’t do the basics, even 5 yard passes into and out of midfield. Mistake after mistake. Somehow scored 2…

Today another new system and starting 11. Injuries now for Ndjoli and Umerah. If it wasn’t time to be a little panicked with the approach in pre-season, it certainly is now…

Not much we can do now, just endure the shit season and back to the national league. Budget spent on shite.

Ironically the one season we change tact and hand out 2 year deals.

All our budget spent on shite maybe that’s all our budget would get us

Can't remember the last time I saw such poor recruitment,it's been shocking, maybe 2 or 3 out of 15 look like they have something. I get the impression Hartley has massively underestimated the standard of this league while he goes about offering 2 year deals to any Tom dick or Harry!. Where do we honestly go from here now, I can't see anything changing with these players and we are stuck with them.
Hartley has really baffled me today with his line up again, one of the only bright sparks has been Menayese and he gets dropped for Murray,who incidentally makes Scott Harrison look like prime Virgil van Dyk. Chopping and changing formation and players every game won't work either,it's not football manager,this is real life. Yes I'd absolutely love it if he turned it around but certainly don't see that happening. A few days left in the window but if the quality brought in so far is anything to go by then god knows what we will end up with. 6 games in and I'm sick already!.

Fook me we could end up with Darlo if this lot are here for 2 years and that's a serious statement.

Remember the retained list was done before he arrived too. He’s missed out on two or three of his top targets in the last 2 weeks that the club were waiting on also. Offers are in for a forward and a defender - interesting to see if they materialise now.

This waiting 6 weeks for our last 2 managers dosent seem to work very well as the results asatain.
Be over the moon to finish 3rd bottom.

New center back needed and a fwd/attacking mid
If all 3 are winners for this level maybe we grind our way out of bottom 2
It’s silly in some ways to talk about sacking manager but I am seeing no sign of him
Having a clue.
Colchester away next week who are a very poor side, really is win or bust I think

Just for some perspective, Orient are top of the division and have won all their games bar one. Not saying Pools performance was adequate in any shape or form but the opposition were superior and were always going to win this game. If by October we are still being regularly hammered then there will need to be be big changes.

Murray and Lacey look abject like really bad, hastie I keep hearing is a confidence player but so far his 1st touch is woeful
Featherstone was decent today and that was it
McDonald took his goal well but nothing aside from that and umerah worked hard as always.

I do think orient were very good but we can’t keep playing we are playing top 3 candidates week in week out

https://twitter.com/bbcteessport/status ... YzabCdYkcA

Post match reaction from Hartley above ^

What big changes ? Won’t be able to bring anyone in until January

New manager afta waiting 6 weeks to get the right one again.

Played 3 games with a back 4 and conceded 11 goals
It’s a close one but I think Lacey is even more inept than Murray which is some going, Christ help us with these 2 on 2 year contracts

Yes, changes to the playing staff wont be an option in October.

Wonder what Ronnie Moore is up to nowadays.

I have thought long and hard on how we can rescue our season.

The following players can compete at League 2 level:

Killip, Sterry, Ferguson, Menayese, Crawford, Shelton, Featherstone, Sylla, Grey, Umerah

The rest of the players do not look up to it. A lot of those mentioned above haven't been great, but they have shown at least something (either this season or previous seasons) to show that they can compete. We need to play as many of those players as possible. The rest so far haven't shown they can compete at League 2 level. If they want to get in the team, they can buck up their ideas and prove their worth, if not they can do one.

The majority of Hartley's signings have so far being flops and should be nowhere near the team.

With decent signings in key areas such as central defence, forward etc, we can begin to compete.

Before anything else, we need to compete. Once we start competing, we can pick up points and move out of danger but whether the manager is Hartley or someone else, they need to be astute, realise who can and can't cut it, and make a silk purse out of a pig's ear (Mick Wadsworth style).

A couple of weeks ago some on here were criticising the club for only giving one year contracts. Well now you know why. Free transfers are a gamble and as I have said previously if you get two out of five success you have done well.
As for Mutes opinion of who can compete in our league Crawford, Shelton and Grey have not been able to hold there places in the past year.

I should clarify - I am not saying they are world beaters or even good League 2 players, all I'm saying that they can do a job. The point i was making is that the majority players brought in cannot do a job. It's as simple as that, some of them can't even get a kick of the ball, they offer nothing, that's how poor they are. I do question the mentality of a few of the new signings, I expect players to run, to challenge for the ball, there's too many players coasting in recent lineups.

They are honest lads who will give it a go, and will do something.

Why are people suddenly expecting Hartley to see sense, After all he knows better than you or me.

He repeatedly says in interviews "you have to stick to your principles"
Does that sound like someone whos suddenly going to change and play to our strengths
With Sterry and Fergie as as wingbacks, No chance.

Needs sacking ASAP.

Unfortunately, I'm not expecting him to see sense.

We can only hope

Its backS to walls time now and we need some fighters.
There were a couple of examples of the lack of this , when the arsehole defender tried to get umerah sent off and when Lacey got sythed down by the forward pissed he didn’t get a pen.
Both times a few of our players should have been in their faces causing bother but in both cases they were left to fend for themselves, a worrying sign

Reckon he needs a win at Colchester next week or he will be the Scapegoat for a badly run football club.
Sweeney must have interim manager in his contract.

he has one thing in common with good or bad managers, they are bloody stubben and will never change their principles till they move on. they,ll force the players to play their way and not the way the players want to or are actually suitable for that position.

Exactly. I noticed a few days ago in a pre match video Hartley mentioned "standing by your principles" or something like that.

I've said it elsewhere but not on here. But this is a free hit for Hartley and if it goes tits up he'll easily get a similar job in Scotland no problem.

It's probably bullshit, but I heard a few days ago Hartley had two games left before he'd bite the bullet. Thing Is though, I've even heard people who don't even follow us start making remarks about a divide between old players and new players in a toxic dressing room.

As i said could be bollocks but it does look realistic.

unless things have not changed in the last 40 years that could be correct. Know a couple of managers from that period who would only sign one scottish lad in the team as more than one they,d stick together like glue making it a divided dressing room. Just wonder what the other 90 of em thought about that situation.

Highlights,
https://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/videos/
Apologies some one has already posted this, I thought the penalty was unlucky but the second Orient claim one looked a stone waller, if it had been given it could have been a red card. Umerah was lucky to stay on the field for raising his hand, on another day he would have been sent off.

just going off the highlights alone pools and especially killip could feel a bit unfortunate on two goals they conceeded where on another day another team possibly at the top would have had more luck with the bounce or legs.

The foul for the first pen started outside the box. What Fergie was trying to do which caused the second only he knows. Killip was unlucky his block went straight to their man.
However overall I think we were second best and Orient deserved the points.
As far as lady luck goes, struggling teams don't seem to get much of it, the good stuff anyway.
As has been said We need a solid central defender, an attacking midfielder and another striker. Those are minimum requirements. Then the manager has to establish a system best suited by the squad he's got and get on with it.
At the moment he and his players haven't left pre season mode yet. He doesn't seem to know what he wants and from whom and the players haven't a clue on the team shape as he keeps changing it a la pre season.

one single player brought in could turn it around. even when we have had decent sides the odd player missing for a game can change things for the worse. alright he messes about with the team shape but would get pasted if he did,nt when the team is doing bad. has anyone on here got a clue how to change what we have. the only thing hartley can do to get fans onboard is to win matches. its got to a stage now where fans would accept anything for 3 points and not worry if there was no flowing football on view. lets hope he gets it right for our sakes as well has his and the players.

When things are going badly, the usual strategy is to do everything possible to make the team hard to beat and then gradually look to attack a little bit more. That was what Sam Alardyce used to do when he was parachuted in to save Premiership teams from relegation. It is becoming obvious that Pools are quite easy to beat. As you suggest mr accrington, we would all settle for scrappy 1-0 wins, in fact we would be ecstatic.

Yes I would say go 5-3-2 , but currently we dont have the players for it-would mean having to play both of the chuckle brothers in defense and no real cover up front.
He has a squad for 4-2-3-1, only problem is a lot of the players who 'fit' in that formation happen to be shite.
Really not sure where we go from here with the current squad. If you look at the players who I think are L2 standard (not saying world beaters at this level) we have, Killip, Sterry Menase, Ferguson, Sylla, Feather, Cooke and Umerah, jury out on Mcdonald and I know others like Crawford)---not sure how you get all those players in a viable formation.
The rest don't look like viable L2 players on the admittedly limited viewing we have seen--am sure Rochdale, Colchester and Crawley fans are worried, but I would be amazed if their teams are as bad as ours.

after 6 league games its still difficult to know how good or bad they are or the ones above. those 3 could be playing quite decent but everything not going their way. teams near the top are winning but have been kucky wins where the fans are waiting for the wheels to come off. results wise its like a mid season 6 game blip that all clubs have, the only problem is that its how pools results have come about and not the result itself. mansfield last season were in a similar position but with far better a squad.