Whenever we get hold of a new player (even at this stage in the season) they never seem to be up to the fitness levels the rest of the team has.

Saturday proved how fit a side we are putting up with a pack of over physical Martin Allen inbreds

Barker looked solid but was blowing towards the end, give him a few weeks of beasting by the coaches at pools he'll be throwing defenders about for fun. The first header towards the town end he pretty much held the defender away with one arm to win the header, think with the amount of service he'll get he'll do well.

Saturday was one of the best atmospheres at a pools game in ages

Two double entendres in one sentence

When we went up in 2003 we needed outstanding fitness levels to make up for a probable lack of skill in the higher division. It was said many times that Pools' work rate was like their having an extra man.
This season superior skill should not be an issue and the fitness pure bonus. Our results in the glut of matches in September and over Christmas were I'm sure partly due to this.

Unfortunately in March/April the matches don't look like coming as thick and fast as usual (only one mid-week game so far) failing a sudden cold spell with loads of cancelled games. After this week the only teams with anything you might reasonably call a fixture backlog will be Wrexham (true to form) and Mansfield.

Shame really. That could have really have been to our advantage in the run in.