they have sold all tickets
all depends on weather as well

It was a disastrous campaign becasue we were relegated. How can people say 53 points and staying in this division is a disastrous campaign?

Given the away performances and results we have got this season I would say it's been pretty disastorous.

Im sorry to say that people are expecting way too much from this squad. Its clearly not good enough so I think anywhere around mid table is a reasonable season - a platform for the next one

i only expected to get mid table but mediocre football is bloody awful to watch for a full season

Expecting too much? Don't talk daft. When the right team has been played we have turned over some of the best teams in the division for long periods of games, if it wasn't for some poor management then this side would easily be in the top 10. The division is awful and we have struggled to compete with some equally awful sides.

If I'm expecting too much from wanting to do better than winning 4 and drawing 3 from 22 away games then I can only apologise for having such high demands.

it was an awful season last time around because we expected an assault on the league title, not relegation. this time round my expectations were a lot lower. but we still have been poor

The right team? What might this be then?

Its been a culmination of wrong decisions and players generally playing shite. Im not defending Wilson but at the end of the day its up to the players he puts out there to do a job and some of them are just not upto it.

While the players do of course have a responsibility to do their best it is not their sole responsibility to win games. If it was then there would be no need for managers. The players and the manager must be held responsible for a lot of poor performances this season - mainly away from home.

What makes it more galling is that we keep getting glimpses of what we know we are capable of - on our day we are capable of beating anyone in this league. We matched the champions down here and were unlucky to have key decisions go against us in that game. We also did well against them at their place apparently. Inconsistency and a lack of confidence has crept into our game which we need to sort out for next season.

Whether DW is the man to do this I don't know. He has frustrated the fans with his tinkering and strange choices at times but the choice is with IOR. We have the nucleus of a team that can do very well in this division, lets hope we can move forward next season

Our performance at Swansea was very good, JohnnyMars. I would say it was our second best away performance to the one at Orient. We created more clear cut chances than the Swans and really looked the part. Leeds away was another one. We deserved something at Forest and Southend. We took the lead twice at Carlisle, only to gift them daft goals. All these teams are up there and we weren't outplayed by any of them. I don't know to this day how we only got one point from our two games with Leeds.
We have just let in too many silly goals. The question is why didn't we start the season with the defence we had last season and why didn't we sign a decent goalkeeper. only Danny Wilson/Ken Hodcroft can answer those questions.

But surely all of these 'good performances' the ones you mention at Swansea, Forest, Southend, Leeds for example. Didn't we lose them all?

The fact that we can perform for 70 minutes does not mean that the players are good enough, it means that they cannot perform consistantly or in other words; aren't good enough. I don't go for the luck excuse either, in individual games you can be unlucky but over the whole season you are s good as your league position. We're a touch worse than mid table, an accurate relection of our squad.

I agree

We need several better quality players if we are going to seriously compete at the top of this league. I am aware however that we cannot afford to just go out and buy all these players at once as, it needs to be done gradually.

and the managers abilty to motivate what most pools fans think is a good squad who on their day can play good football one of our biggest problems has been we have never had a team played consistantly
and not all of it has been through injury a striker scores a brace and is left out next game is that supposed to motivate a player to strive for better i think not
he threatens to bring in better but up till now we have not seen anyone better he imply can't attract the players he thinks we need

Ian, Yes DW is partially responsible but one day hopefully soon, you'll agree that the workforce takes some responsibililty for their output.

What are your definitions of mid table? I too was willing to accept a mid-table position this season but for me 15th on 53 points is a bit low to call mid table 'cos we're not even close to being in the top half. The highest we can possibly finish is 13th if all the results go our way.
But if we lose the last two games there's every chance we'll finish the season in the lowest position we've been all season and can be counted as relegation escapees.

So I would consider this season a failure. A tolerable one because we live to fight again, hopefully under better circumstances, but a failure nonetheless.
Having said that, we're no better or worse off than if we'd finished 7th.

Anyway, remember what happened the season we were cock-sure of outperforming the whole division? These things work both ways. Next season is another story.

We can hope. By the way, I don't think Wilson was on about Nelson in the paper.

Well, it probably means that most of the players are good enough.
You've obviously managed to blot out the hundreds of times Poolie Kev has suggested that it's the defence. No mean feat on your part......you must tell me the secret of your success sometime !

It's not just Kev, I've been harping on about it for months too. Not sure how that can be construed as blotting it out.

Perhaps not, but it's a bit different from saying the whole team aren't good enough.
And as many have said already, it all began with Mr Antwi being picked over Ben Clark

We did indeed lose those games. The point I am making is that we threw points away in those games. We were never outplayed in any of them. Of course the league table doesn't lie but the position we find ourselves in could have been avoided. The decision making made by management and players alike was what let us down rather than being out of our depth.
It all started at Luton in my opinion, and it is still going on. We had one player from our regular promotion winning back five selected for that game namely Nelson. No Barron, no Clark, no Humphreys and of course no Dimi. We have not had a settled defence all season. Ok we may have had injuries at times but some of the chopping and changing was totally unnecessary. Total misunderstanding amongst our defenders has been responsible for quite a lot of defeats. We have two games to go and Danny Wilson STILL doesn't know who his best back four are. He plays McCunnie at right back one week and then Sweeney the next.
During Wilson's reign at Pools he has had the following personnel at right back. Barron, Williams, Antwi, Gibb, Sweeney, McCunnie, Nolan, Liddle and the kid on loan who went to Bristol. I may have missed a couple out but I have listed NINE different players there. More than half of then are NOT full backs.
We have enough decent players at the club to be higher than we are in this league. What we need is somebody to recognise their proper positions and manage them accordingly.
With a couple or three decent additions we SHOULD be a force to be reckoned with.

The change of goalie was forced on us though wasn't it. The way I remember it Lee Barratt was caught off guard with their first goal and should have done better. Their second goal wasn't even a goal because it didn't go in.
I'm not condoning the wholesale changes made in defence, but that Luton game genuinely was an unlucky defeat. That doesn't imply the other away defeats were also unlucky.
What's more we did lack penetration in that match, which seems to be another feature of our away performances this season: goals at will at home, complete absence of attacking ideas away.

Yes the goalie was forced upon us but, like you say, Barratt made one mistake and then was dropped.
A settled side is the ideal situation, but I am convinced that Wilson just doesn't know what his best starting eleven is................well ten of them anyway.

Yes, but we have been 'unlucky' too many times. I, and I suspect most others, am sick of hearing hard luck stories, or 'thats what happens when you don't take your chances' stories - they get repeated ad nauseum this season, usually after every away game.

I can think of at least five players who need replacing if we are to progress. I appreciate that IOR have a budget to stick to but I just hope we go at least half way to making the necessary changes required for next season.

Five new players who would improve the squad would be marvellous.
We need to know which players are going to be retained first. Are we going to lose any of our current 'better players'?