Im too merry to structure this so forgive me.

*Even when going a goal down the lads dont panic and just keep working their socks off. Even the supporters (who attend the games) dont get on the players backs and sure enough they seem to always get back into the game.

*Oldham imo were a very good team with some good players (who i assume are loanees) Considering Oldhams defence is meant to be tight, we scored 4 and it could have been more.

* thank god we didnt sign Dean Brill, did he save any shots today??

* I did think defensively in the first half we were a 'bit dodgy', both before and after Collins injury. Its od that our players look more solid away from home.

* Mick wadsworth seems to get the balance just right between criticising and praising his players. Its also nice to see that he will be critical of all of them such as Ritchie, which i dont think has always been the case with previous managers.

* at half time despite us winning 2-1 I probably would have taken a draw. Oldham looked strong in the first half and with the injury to collins I had a nagging doubt re us holding the lead. Then against the odds, the players come out and play better than they did the first half. I seriously didnt expect them to win that but they worked their balls off.

* The ref was a clown (again) I must admit though that i didnt think it was a penalty although obviously we could do with seeing it again.

* I was just a tad disappointed with our keeper who seems to get stuck to his line just a little too much. With the absence of collins we were under a bit of pressure from high crosses and I think the keeper could have easily claimed a number of them.

* on a related note i must praise Hartley who I had serious reservations about playing as a centre half but Im chuffed to say he is doing it superbly. He really bossed our defence around today once collins went off against a side who were clearly no mugs. Haslam too did well.

* Horwoods set-pieces are reminiscent of mitch cook's. I would be interested to know how many assists he has this season. The cross for hartley's goal was sublime. Go back a few years and us scoring from a set-piece was unheard of!

* Dickov, dickhead more like The twaat never stopped moaning all friggin game to the officials despite the fact that their players led with their elbows time after time and kept getting away with it. Your team got what they deserved you nasty little prick.

* Humphries goal was an absolute beaut!!! A fantastic counter-attacking move with a sublime cross field ball in the build up (not sure who it was).

* Are people still doubting mcsweeney??

*Sweeney over recent seasons seemed to have lost a lot of parts of his game and lets be honest, most of us would have been tempted to get rid. This season though he is well and truly back to his best. Some of his first touches today were magical (and I wouldn't say sweeney is known for that). He goal was expertly taken too.

It really was a great, great performance and its such a crime that there wasnt more people there to see it, a lot would have been tempted to return im sure.

Mick, you are a genius and I love pools again. To achieve that in such a short space of time following that silly boy turner's reign is remarkable. Thank you so much

Great call Mr Grave. The team is unrecognisable from earlier on in the season, despite it being the same personnel. MW has given the players belief, and it's a joy to follow Pools again...Pity we moved over to Jersey like!

GOOD POST GRAVE, but as supporters we need to keep a sense of persepctive and not expect this good run to go on and on

What a mysterious comment, Mr Tofeet

Very mysterious. Perhaps Mr Tofeet is..da da...the Spectre at the Feast?

Im not counting my chickens, the run wont go on forever but the longer it goes on the better. Im still more than happy with a midtable finish. I still think talk of promotion, especially automatic promotion is over the top.

Scraping into the play-offs would be an amazing achievement.

a great team performance.
Particularly pleasing 2nd goal .Created & scored by two Poolies.

McSweeney & Haslam -two players I've been unsure about for a long time both did v.well & seem to be improving.

The lads were particularly good at using & defending set pieces. Some obvious evidence of good training ground routines.

A small squad that Mick is using to best effect.


Only 20 points off safety now

The way the table stands at the moment it's not us that needs to do the scraping; it's the other sides that need to keep us out
http://stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/D2/ppgame.html
Our 1.6 points a game are every bit as valid as those of the two "giants" above us. And we are the division's form team, so why shouldn't we improve even further?
We had no problem talking about the play-offs in the Cooper seasons when we had fewer points after 20 games than we have now.

Go for it Pools I say!

Mr Grave, assuming you are who I think you are, how come you were drinking bovril before kick off