OK so we've just lost to a conference team 1-0.

We've had enough of the ball and enough possession near their penalty area to win comfortably but we didn't take our chances. Our strikers had a bad day at the office.

We may need someone who is able to link up the midfield and attack.

I'm as upset as anybody but we need to stick together.

We're 11th in the league. I'm sure everybody would have took that at the start of the season and I'm sure everybody will do now. It would be completley wrong to sack a manager when we're 11th in a tough league.

Daniel, how dare you bring sensible discussion to the board!!!

we are nowhere near in as bad a state as some are making out, but i can't blame them for being utterly frustated and disappointed at that result/performance.

We are definately missing something at home, that much is obvious. Turner needs to work out what it is and make the necessary changes before more people become 'Turner Outers'.

For me its a leader in the centre of midfield who can control things and calm things down as and when.

We also SEVERELY lack pace up front, with only Larkin having any of any note. How can we stretch teams out of shape when our front two are lazier & slower than Wayne & Waynetta Slob?

We NEED at least two players, either on loan or permanently in January. A midfielder and a striker. I'm hoping we try and get someone like Nardiello back in on loan.

I agree completley.

Centre midfield is not really linking up well.

I think today we tried to play it to our strikers feet and work it into the box. This can be an issue when Kettering have plenty of men behind the ball.

A striker with pace when we're about to break forward would have come in handy.

We had enough possession around the penalty area to create those chances. When we often looked like creating a good chance we let ourselves down with a bad pass.

The main problem today was not creating chances when we had the ball around the penalty area. We still managed 17 shots and without a shadow of a doubt there were numerous times where we put good balls into the box but our strikers were not there to head it in, especially in the first half.

I'm not trying to say we played good but as MisterB said we were nowhere near as bad as people are making out.

We need another porter simples

con-fooking-curring.

Porter's the ideal player for us. A player who will drop deep and act as a link between midfield and attack.

A player with pace to stretch defences.

It's not easy replacing a player like him. In fact it's almost impossible.

unless we have a spare half a million or an extremely good scouting system!

Yes a bigger miss than some might have thought this type of player is one of the missing links of the pools puzzle this season

I might just put in for the managers job seeing we dont have one

I think the warning signs are there Mr Gaunt.

Spot on Mr Gloves.

I said at the match that I'd hate to be a midfielder in that team (e.g. trying to play in the role Humphreys has been given) cos there's no movement whatsoever and nowhere and nobody to pass the ball to.

The less intellectually gifted on here then start slating Humphreys.

You really are a cracker

I take it that you're concurring then.

Yes you are exactly right, Humphreys is god and has single-handedly got us into the top half of the table.

Well done Sir Ritchie, and heres hoping he plays just as good for the rest of the season

You can't even do sarcasm very well.

i find it funny how the title of this thread is "lets be sensible here" then mr "we could be 3rd with a decent manager" comes on acting like a child.

Oh for a good sensible debate. Come back madjohn, monty and barbara woodhouse!

The bit about being 3rd with a decent manager was obviously an exagguration to try to highlight that I think we could be doing so much better than we currently are. Ok so third is over the top but I do think a lower play-off place may be attainable with a decent manager and a couple of additions to the squad.

Grave or Tree or whoever you are today,

Given 2 minutes you can ruin any thread even one from a respected poster like this one..

Jesus christ you cannot have a debate because if people don't agree with you that Humps is the be all and end all and the major fault in Pool's you try and be-little them

Disagree, I watch Richie closely on Saturday and most of the mistakes he made particularly in the first half (and trust me there were fcking plenty) were down to his own lack of football ability. He was caught in possession continuously and the most basic of passes were wayward. Whilst I agree his role isn't being helped by the immobile front two, to use that as an excuse for yet another poor Humphreys performance is somewhat shortsighted in my opinion.

Caught in possession because he was desperately trying to find some bugger to pass to? Talk about making the poor bloke an escape goat for the failings of others.

grave look at the teams occupying those spots, financially and crowd wise they are much, much stronger, bigger and better than us. Im not saying we shouldnt be aiming for there or we shouldnt be playing better style of football, but what you expect from pools position wise is nigh on impossible.

We are in the top half on merit and its impossible to judge if we will stay there or drop.

Humphreys is past it, accept it.

But the times he was caught in possession I'm referring to he wasn't looking for a pass so I don't see how others can be blamed in these instances for his failings. I suppose the number of basic passes he cocked up weren't his fault either?

Regardless of whether you or I like him or what we think about what he did, didn't or is alleged to have said and done in the past he wasn't one of our worst players on Saturday and he's been doing a reasonable if not spectacular job for the team in recent weeks that I don't personally think any other member of our current squad could do better.

Cocked up or where their player reacted quicker than one of our lazy bastads? Other players can make somebody look bad and in my opinion this is the case here.

The passes that he sent astray in the first half on Saturday were nothing whatsoever to do with the laziness of others. Having watched the way he has passed the ball for the last three reasons I doubt he'd be able to pick up Ronaldo and Thierry Henry with a pass over the top anyway so I'm not going to blame Behan and Boydy too much for his incompetency so they're not helping him much I agree.

Hey, there are plenty of other people saying the same things. Im not trying to belittle anyone, merely disagreeing with them. Its not my fault so many people are afraid to admit how shiit Ritchie is on here. Its funny but at the games everybody is saying the same thing but you come on here and its considered almost like treason to criticise him.

No they're not, your lying again to try and make your point.

I have defended Humphries on this board on the occassions I thought he deserved defending.

On Saturday he played badly, as others have pointed out. Some slack passes and at times slowing the game down when we doing so much better with crisp, quicker passes.

I'm not going to get into a "for" or "against" Humphreys or any other player for that matter, I tend to adopt the attitude that a player deserves mine (and all other fans support) the next game whether or not I/they believe he deserved dropping because of a previous performance.

But the simple fact is that people on here need to take of the "blinkers" and even if a player is their favourite or the player they hate the most, then if they play bad they at least say so and if a hated player and he plays well they should also say so.

But the simple fact is Humphreys played badly on Saturday, but he wasn't the only one, and at the same time he isn't solely to blame for the defeat.

I'd love to come on here after a match and say 'Richie Humphreys was class today, 9 out of 10, that's the Richie of old'. I have nothing against the guy and used to love watching him when he was half decent. However since we have come up a league I can think of very few games (if any) where he deserved a 8, a handful where he was worthy of a 7 and the rest were 6 and below. That's a pretty poor return from such a high amount of games and Christ only knows how he has maintained his place in the team for so long as I'm lost to see what he offers.

When you look at the criticsm that players like Robson and Foley received it staggers me that Richie doesn't get anywhere near this on a matchday. Robson was quality this time last season, he put in a couple of bad games and then the stick started again yet Humphreys constantly under performs and never gets anyone on his back.

He certainly wasn't the only one to have a bad game on Saturday and I don't blame him anymore than I blame many of the other forward players that featured.

I'm not singling him out, there are a number of problem areas I just feel that wherever he plays then the opposition are always going to get the better of us. Left back spot was a problem when he was there and now the central midfield looks crap now he is in there. It's not a coincedence.

I concur.

I didn't give him an 8 or 9 and personally think that 6s and 7s are more his marks this season. My argument was and remains that we have nobody else in our current squad who could do better than that in the position he is currently playing. He and Jones are our best midfield pairing until or unless we bring somebody else in.

if Humphreys had signed for us this summer, or even a year ago, he would get absolutely hammered and everyone would be wanting him out.

But because he is the clubs blue eyed boy, and the fans, when he makes a stray pass it's someone elses fault.

If he hadn't been here for 8 years it is pure human fact that 99% of fans would not rate him... FACT!!

Have you done a survey to prove those statistics or are you doing a Grave?

I don't need too, it's blatently obvious to anyone with half a brain cell that he's past it and is living on not just past glories, but past past glories.

I don't need to do a flipping survey to express my opinion.

And i said fact.

well that is 99% bollox

no one is suggesting that he is above criticism (apart from you) but to suggest that he is the ian clarke of the current squad is even by your standards talking shite.
nobody in the squad with the possible exception of flinders and liddle are playing anywhere near as well as expected at the moment so it is the TEAM who are underperforming not individuals.
but once a player becomes the target lets not spoil a debate with reason eh

Why do people always go down the 'target' route when a player comes in for a bit of criticism?

A few people have put forward reasons why a certain player hasn't been performing, thats all, and he's not the only one.

It's not a witch hunt, just an observation.

See I disagree again. I genuinely don't see what he offers so I think Jonny Rowell would be a far better option. When he has played for the first team he has always put in excellent performances and often been worthy of man of the match. Richie Humphreys never gets anywhere near that. From what I have seen the two players don't compare. He's younger, more creative and would give the team some much needed pace. God only knows why Turner doesn't rate him.

Then there is Fredriksen who impressed at first but doesn't get a kick now. I don't think he would be any worse.

You can add Collins, Austin and Richie Jones to that list too IMO.

I've not seen enough of Rowell to know if he'd be able to do a job.

But I completely disagree about Fredriksen. He didn't impress me at all playing in the centre, he looked like a winger playing out of position and was piss weak.

so what do you think Humphreys plays like in the middle then?

Spot on IMO.

I don't think its the fact that you are 'targetting' them as such, its the fact that SOME refuse to give Humphreys even the smallest amount of praise when he does something good or has a good game.

If people were to say X player has had a good/average/poor game then fine thats fair. But SOME refuse to accept that Humphreys HAS put in some good perfomances.

Or lets put it another way......

Humphreys does 10 good things and 10 bad. There are those that concentrate on the 10 good things, those that concentrate on the 10 bad, and then there are the small amount of people (Chip, Fetish and a couple of others ) who can take both sides into consideration and give a valued, honest appraisal. While the rest of us argue about it like a bunch of bored housewives (ooops, now Chip is gonna be sniffing around!!!)

Its a glass half full/empty scenario.

But people can't say Richie has a bad game if he never does!

I bet change my viewpoint if your agreeing with me

HUMPHREYS FOR CAPTAIN!

I can see the obvious leadership skills he will bring to the side and seeing as he will be playing every minute of every game for the next 7 years then he could bring the team some much needed consistency. He gets my vote.

Humphreys for EU president.

imagine when he is manager, we will be rock bottom, 10 points relegated, and people will still be sticking up for him and entering him in bonny babies in the male.

Careful Mr Mutley, the rarfs will categorise you!