Hello pool fans. I am looking forward to tomorrow's game and am hoping we'll make it through to the Semi Finals. However I have a feeling your going to get revenge for that spanking we gave to you in August. A decent attendance is expected but no where near the 15,000 we got against Chesterfield. I would suspect around 10,000. How many of you are coming, if there's more of you then maybe we'll have a good atmosphere going. Enjoy your trip to Hillsborough lads and lasses!

TBH Liam there wont be many of us making the trip, due mainly to the issue involving a couple of your fans at the train station after that heavy home defeat. Shame cos' I think we would have brought a few down otherwise, still here's hoping for a good game tomorrow.

That was terrible what happened, was it your fans involved too?

No, they weren't fans. They just happened to be hanging out in the pubs around the station.

not looking for a bite here but, if these people are looking for away fans to attack then give them the opportunity!!! if 5 maybe 10 of you front them they will shit it as i learned at hull away, bradford away and hudds away all 3 'looking' for a fight but when offered bottled it

Must have been an awful smell ?

It is the nearest ground to us at the moment ( of the teams in our league ) and the wife and I decided to give it a miss.
I am one of the regulars of which you speak, Chip and I couldn't be bothered after last Saturday.
I am making two hundred mile round trips to home games and yet spurned a chance to watch Pools at my favourite away ground which is a thirty odd mile round trip for us.
There's something wrong when I have no plans for any away trips at the moment, apart from Walsall in March and if it wasn't for the fact that I've arranged to meet one of our old stalwarts, John Gill, I wouldn't be going there either.
I know we have no money for players and I know Turner signed a load of dross and I also know Wadsworth is doing the best he can with what he's got but I've just about had enough.
We have people in the town who won't turn out, we have no money to bring in any quality, we haven't had a manager for two years come December 15th, we are lining up 4-5-1 against the likes of Vauxhall Motors ( no disrespect) and, until our squad contains a bit more quality especially strikers who start scoring goals, I can't see anything but continuous struggle matched with the frustration of seeing chance after chance go begging.
I am fed up of listening to all the ifs.
We are a point above the bottom four and, unless something is done to correct the "ifs", we will be firmly entrenched there come Christmas.
I am actually dreading the Brighton game but would love to cheer a win.

Derwent. That is a very good post, and more than a little worrying.

One thing that I have noticed that is really noticable is the drop in traffic on the message boards. Irrespective of whether we're talking about the Bunker, ITB, the happy clappy board, or any of the others, the post count is down hugely. Traffic on here is less than 60% of this time last year and well below its historic levels. As an average over the years the Bunker has consistantly run at between 240 - 300 posts per day. At the moment its below 100.

I don't think this is due to a problem with the board in particular because as I say, all the boards are very quiet. Obviously it mirrors the low attendances at Pools and now we're down to the so called hardcore fans saying that they can't be bothered to attend. These are desperate days in lots of ways but I don't think you can overstate the impact of the economy. There are a lot of people on the dole who would historically have gone to games and consequently posted pre and post match comments. These are the people who are missing.

For the others who can afford to go; Going to football matches regularly is a habit and once you get out of it something a bit special needs to happen to rekindle interest. Pools are going the opposite way and losing even more support. It's all very well saying we have a decent away record but thats built on not conceding (usually) effective but hardly exciting. Relegation seems more likely than not and I fear that unless we get back to Cooper-esque performances then the drip will continue.

I'm not even that sure that relegation would be such a terrible thing for Pools. At least fighting for promotion is more exciting that this eternal bottom six half life we're living at the moment.

After 180 minutes of football against Wednesday the goals for are 1 and against are 9.
After every tom ducking we've had this season somebody brings up how unfair the scoreline was. I've said it myself and all it achieves is a wry smile and well you would say that wouldn't you.

Strangely enough I came away quite satisfied last night (despite the fact I had no feeling in my feet, my cock had shrunk to about 7 inches and I was paranoid that I was going to get a kicking).

I like what Wadsworth is doing with the club and it feels a bit more like the 'old Hartlepool' we used to have before Lard Arse Turner got his mucky grubs us. I can handle losing as long as we have a shot at winning and last night we did. We made individual mistakes but thats part and parcel of supporting a small team in the third tier of English football and sadly there's nothing you can do about it.

We're one player away from being the best we have been in a couple of years, if we can get that player in (or he might already be in) and then build on that I will be very happy.

Turner did a lot of damage to this football club, it's not going to rebuild itself overnight and anyone who is expecting that might as well just quit now. I'm happy with the progress Wadsworth is making and I think we're heading in the right direction with him, it's a completely contrasting direction to where we were heading 6 months ago.

This was my view of the away end last night




didn't see any trouble thankfully.


As for the game, for the first 35 minutes I think Pools were awful and could have been more than 2 down, Kean making a couple of decent if straight forward saves, I think Horwoods shot over was your only effort prior to that excellent strike by Yantarno, crisp finish into the top of the net. Following that you were all over us like a rash and should have levelled when Monkhouse got in after a foul on Purse was let go by the referee.

We had to do some defensive shuffling throughout, Otsemobor off early doors then Purse at half time left our right side bare.

Second half and the game was done and dusted inside 10 minutes, a clear penalty although you could argue about Coke being offside, then slack defending let in Teale.

After that Pools created some chances which were wasted inexplicably, a goal back could have seen you make a game of it for the final bit unfortunately the finishing was Sunday League.

Cheers

That is true I wasn't there but that doesn't alter the stats.
I watched the games against Rochdale, Swindon, Bristol Rovers, Exeter, Leyton Orient, Dag & Red, Vauxhall Motors and in my opinion we should have won the lot.
Then there are the games against Carlisle and Wednesday(last night ) where we spurned numerous chances so, having seen it happen on every one of those occasions( apart from last night) where we either threw away a lead, or squandered chances or gave away daft goals, or a combination of all three, I can safely say I have seen and heard it all before.
I also read your report where you comment on missed chances and woeful defending, so it was same old same old.
There comes a time where the word if stops getting used and reality is allowed into the equation.
I am not commenting on our performance last night because I wasn't there, I'm merely pointing out that we can't keep bemoaning the fact that the result flattered the opposition. That doesn't get us points or keep us in cups.

The score is 9-1, whether I was there or not. An aggregate that only fuels the stay aways resolve.
Good on you and those others who went and I appreciate your report and I believe everything you say in it but it really is the same old sloppy defending/missed chances routine and I am getting fed up of it.
I'm not the only one either...........ask Mr Wadsworth.

I'm not too bothered how we fair against teams like Sheffield Wednesday at the moment, players like Morrison, Mellor, Miller, Weaver and Purse have all spent the majority of their careers in the top 2 leagues and when they stepped it up last night they looked comfortably better than us.

Given how ramshackled this team has been by the previous manager I'd expect nothing less than a good beating. It's how we hold our own against the smallers sides that I will use as a yardstick to guage our progress.

I agree Mr Tax................it's the games against Orient, Daggers and others in the bottom half which are crucial.
Plus the confidence boosters which we should expect from playing VM in the cup but we didn't win any of those and anybody who saw all three will say that we should have beaten all three.
Then the second half displays against Exeter, Swindon and Bristol Rovers were we "lost" seven points.
These results are worrying and may be crucial when it comes to the reckoning.

We were going to bring in a loan defender a month or so ago, until MW discovered that Hartley was a centre half and not predominately a left back as he said.

Since we got Liddle out of defence and Hartley in our defence has improved, the reason I assume MW went cold on borrowing a defender. Last night Hartley wasn't well so he put Liddle back in there and resurrected the defence he wanted to avoid.
Chip has already described Liddle's contribution to our defence last night.

I think MW is a very good coach but his record as a manager is not that good. I think we need a manager before MW gets fed up or the fans turn against him, which in my opinion he doesn't deserve.

I think we are asking too much from Mick which is unfair.

Agree with Chip on this one.

Last season we limped out against Grimsby. We were at home and Grimsby had just been stuffed 3-0 by the mighty Barnet. We never looked like winning, that lad Forbes tortured us early doors but luckily Flinders saved us and it was nothing but a depressing night. This season with the same core of the team that were so dreadful that night we gave a good account of ourselves, created numerous decent chances and had it not been for some silly individual mistakes it would have been a more than respectful scoreline against a strong team with some excellent players.

There's definite progress there, it might not pull up any trees and it's not going to win us silverware but it's progress and that'll do me.

am I the only one who is reading this thread and thinking that tax and chip should get a room

and being serious for a moment, well done to those that went last night. I fully understand why some would have been put off and indeed, I did have second thoughts about not going to the league game later in the season but thugs haven't stopped me from going to football for the past 25 yrs and I hope they never will.

I was thinking it was just me that was a little strange. Despite everything, I enjoyed the day and the match, even allowing for more 'if onlys', and the day not being quite the cheap day out I originally bargained for.

I've still got strong reservations about attending the away game. I'd actually prefer it if no Pools fans went as I don't like the thought of anyone getting a serious slap through no fault of their own.