Today's ratings before i start drinking heavily.

Budtz 9 : not overly stretched, but absolutely flawless when he was. caught everything and made two outstanding intuitive saves.

elliott 7 : curious mix. with a bit of time on the ball, he gave it away too often. when he played instinctively, looked the part. great cross for nelson's goal. promising.

nelson 8 : one of his better games. looked like he was at the races and actually passed it quite well. took his goal well and only cocked up once that i saw. well done micky.

antwi 9 : great game. looked strong and distributed the ball well. reads the game like an old pro. i acknowledge that crewe carried little threat, but godwin played very well. encouraging.

nolan 7 : some great touches, and one of the best crosses i have ever seen in the second half. looked like he was wearing slippers in the first half. can we have him all season ?

brown 7 : ordinary by his standards. his approach play was fine, but his final ball or shot was a bit off today. not a bad sign that he can be not at the races and we still win comfortably !

boland 7 : if willie did that every game until the end of the season, i'd be happy. sensible distribution and broke up crewe going forward at every opportunity. keeps the ball well.

liddle 9 : great game. constant prompting of poold going forward. retained the ball well and looked very positive. had a couple of digs at goal that have been lacking from pools' engine room.

humphreys 9 : my MOM. simply a superb first half. looked well up for it with the burden of defending off his shoulders. incisive passing created a number of chances for us, and once again superb in the air. slight;y quieter second half but still contributed. well done richie !!

moore 9 : excellent unsung hero. ran his socks off again and used the ball intelligently. watch his contribution for the second goal and tell me he doesn't enjoy playing for pools. superb throughout, and a different player with a mobile partner up front.

mackay 8 : living the dream. enthusiastic, and with a superb first touch. give him some more starts and he will get a dozen for us. i'm delighted for the lad, as he gives 120%.

SUBS

barker 9 : you cannot knock him for his contribution. when he comes on towards the end he looks like a man playing against boys. first goal was a cool finish and the penalty was daly-esque. still got a massive part to play for us but will profit from coming on against a tired back four. well done richie !!

foley 7 : tidy. did nowt wrong.

sweeney 7 : must have been unlucky to miss out on a start. looked energetic and full of running.

MANAGER

tried to pick a similar squad in spirit to the Tranmere game. Very vocal again, even when having a go at mistakes etc. gets my backing as long as he has us playing football.

VERDICT

very happy with the performance. a few flaws and misplaced passes but we tried to stay positive against a defensive Crewe side. looked so much more comfortable at the back and there seems to be an understanding between nelse and antwi now. oustanding going forward with a mobile front two, but barker came on at exactly the right time. when you think we've got sweeney and clark to come back into the squad, its encouraging. well done lads, that was good to watch

i wouldn't disagree with any of that...

I thought Liddle had a decent enough game to be honest

The marks were a little bit high high for some of the players, Jan Budtz as well but the general comments were about right....

perhaps my ratings were a bit high, but they were fuelled by six of the pools' lounge's finest magners

i believe in credit where credit's due and thought humphreys, budtz and antwi were deserving of the highest marks, with moore running them a close second (?)

all round a very pleasing performance, especially as brown had a quiet game by his standards.

It's important that we can prove that we can string a few decent performances together. If we win a couple of these festive games then we will be in a reasonable posistion going into the January shake up. It was my hope at the start of the season that going into January we would be within touching distance of the play offs (3 or 4 points). With the right additions in the right area's hopefully we can find some consistancy and push on and hopefully the season won't just fizzle out.....

our next 3 games after swindon are pretty tough though

but ill be going to them hoping for shock results against mainly leeds and carlisle

Perfect 10 on the cliche-ometer, Johnny. I salute you.

Put Ritchie back in midfield and it's like watching Brazil. But put our best passer and most creative midfielder at left back and you have a limited left back and a limited midfield. Yesterday, Ritchi made all the difference. We still need a left back if that is all the effort that Robbie Elliott is going to give. At his age and with his reputation, he should be more than 'promising'. But I hope we sign up Eddie Nolan as he certainly fits the bill at right back.

Are you struggling to find anything you disagree with this week Kevin?

No.

Not a scrap.

You could have a job at the FA School of media instruction with that CV.

Brian.........

And don't forget...........

It's a game of two halves.......

well, personally speaking, it's all credit to the lads for putting in 110% effort and I'm over the moon.
If we could just go on a bit of a run we'll do ok, but there are no easy games in this League. You make your own luck, but with a bit of luck we'll get the rub of the green, and the hopefully the chances will come. At the moment the ball just doesn't seem to be dropping for us, but over the course of a season these things tend to even themselves out.
If we can find a bit of consistency we'll be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.

Cheers Brian.

Cheers Stan, you sound over the moon with that result. You must be very pleased for everyone involved with this football club, and you can't just mean those on the pitch but the lads who don't take the plaudits in the back rooms and of course the Chairman and the board members for backing you. I bet you knew the lads would come good in the end because you see their attitude on the training pitch and you know they always give 200% for each other.

yeah whatever you do, don't actually comment on the game in your haste to be funny.

Well I'm not allowed, I wasn't there.

Mr Grumpy!!