Before.

Last season.

Awful stuff crying out for young Walker in midfield, Walton is playing deeper than Baldwin.

Crying out for any change except bringing Sweeney on to do nothing as usual. Walker, Rodney etc give them a run out. Their centre backs had nothing to worry about all game. Even Howard could have maybe changed the game. But no the usual changes. Why is Rodney even here if he won't Even bring him on while we chasing a game and out of ideas up top?

We dont have the players in the squad that can change the formation of the team subs are changed like for like.

In my opinion we need two or three new players in to give us a plan B teams have sussed or game plan

Walton played well today if we're being honest.

It was the final 3rd were we struggled

Playing long balls time and time again dosnt help though so maybe you have a point. Saying that I thought Dolan was our beat player and Walton did well

I thought it was a poor game last week and the last 30 mins was boring but I was hoping it was because Northamton were so poor, but today was just the same.

Poor game today, for the majority of it Walton & Dolan sat too deep, Compton wasn't really at the races till he knew he was coming off and because of the reluctance of our midfield (Monkhouse excepted) to move and push up the field Poole & James were left chasing long balls.

James was up against two good defenders today but we didn't play to his strength (which seems to running towards them with the ball already under control) instead expecting him to feed off scraps.

On what level did Walton do well today? It was a repeat of the 0-0 against Portsmouth last year but at least last year he probably gave the ball away less .

Walton's dive to win that free kick was world class.

He was bobbins for a lot of the game, but put in about 10 minutes of decent playing in the second half. Compared to himself last year he was a revelation

That dive was outstanding.

I take to all back. Walton has done well lately but today he was a little bit short of that .

Dull game today. Dolan was man of the match in my view - just because his passing caused the odd ripple of applause.

I'm gutted we couldn't create much/get some shots on goal because their keeper was dodgy as fook.

They did what they came to do in my opinion. Parked the bus and hope to score on the break. They closed us down really quickly which got the lads heads down and forced them to look for backwards/sideways passes.

Hats off to them, as dull as it was, that was quality defending.

Anybody who thought we didn't play ok today either didn't go for the last couple of seasons, has alzheimers, or is a bit thick.

None of our players were shite today. We had the majority of the game against a team playing 7-2-1 and played some nice football at times.
Some people just like nowt better than a good fucking whinge, and I bet some of the plebs whinging are the same know nowts who were whinging from the Mill House seats this aft.

Couldn't have put it better myself

The Mill House standing was just as bad today. Heard one miserable bastard shouting 'Burgess get in the middle' when Burgess offered himself at the corner of the box at a goal kick. How dare he offer the chance to build from the back.

I thought we were poor against a poor team, we created nothing clear cut in the game. Did we come close to scoring ... even once? Our worst home performance offensively of the season for me.

I'm not a whinger in the slightest but I thought today highlighted a couple of things one we don't have anyone on our bench who can change a game of football and we struggle against teams who sit back and put the onus on us to break them down .

We looked leggy and played at a slow tempo and didn't seem to press and pressure them in the final third until time was running out.

We had so much of the ball yet created hardly zero. I agree with pj. Dolan was outstanding yet nothing wax created. Some of our football was 1st class. There was a move around the 10 min mark on the left that was worthy of the premiership

on the way out of the ground I heard a bloke in front of me say that he thought walton was a waste of a shirt and was fucking rubbish all game.

in my opinion, he didn't do a lot wrong and the two turns in the second half to make 2 pompey players look like mugs were great to watch, he's gonna give the ball away as much as any other player, if he didn't, he'd be playing a much higher level.

sometimes you have to say the away team have done a job on our attack. I thought their players made every block, every tackle, marked every runner off the ball... they were generally on top of their defensive game (granted it was what they must have trained all week to do) but they did what they wanted and snuffed out our attacking players

It was up to someone from the bench to change it, I actually thought bringing Walker on in the centre for Compton, and switching Poole to the wing might have given us something different... I'm sure Cooper will be looking at it and will want to do some business in the loan market or transfer window if he is allowed

Personally I would look to get Franks out on loan somewhere and bring in another forward, if he has to go down that route of one in one out

I don't think we are going down the route of one in one out as we hVe got rid of Hartley and Howard and have had zilch coming in. We are desperately short up front and Luke should not be expected to do so much on his own. We could do with moving out Franks, Sweeney and Collins next month and bringing in two attacking players as the rest of the team are quite capable of holding their own at this level.

would be nice to think so, cos those 3 you mentioned are just passengers now really. Sweeney and Collins at least have an excuse as they are at the fag end of their careers

I don't know why Franks can't make more impact at this level... it's not like he doesn't have the ability cos he has shown in the past that he does

Unfortunately he has about one good game in every 6 or 7 and that is no good to us.

I think Collins is still needed as cover. If either of the centre backs got injured we'd have to reshuffle the back four moving Austin from left back if Collins wasn't there. He also seems to be doing alright with the reserves.

Franks for me just isn't a winger and never will all he ever tries to do is create half a yard if space and try to cross it in the style of a young Ali Gibb. 95% of the time the full back gets a block in. He never gets his head up and sees what's going on around him and seems to have not much belief in any ability he does have. He has looked ok centrally as he can be direct and has a decent shot.

Sadly Sweeney offers very little to a team trying to play football.

We need one or two other options in the final third capable of influencing a game. The likes of Rodney, Franks and Sweeney are just filling places on the bench. I'm sure Cooper knows that and hopefully he'll have some room for manoeuvre come January.

Austin could possibly play centre back with Holden slotting in at LB. in an emergency.... it's all ifs and buts, and if all possible I'd like to see us adding to what we've got rather than taking anything away... but if the only way we're gonna change things is to ship one or two out on loan then that is what we'd have to do imo. I really do think it's worth trying to build a sustained push up the table in the 2nd half of the season, and not just sit on what we have got

Yeah, but.....

Who wants Hartlepool bench fillers on loan?? And do they want to drop out of League football?? The loan window is shut as well.

it will open again before the season is out!!! Wheeling and dealing needs to be done if at all possible if it looks like it's going a bit stale.... which I have to say it just might be... we might need to freshen things up a little bit. Who knows, we may hit form again, or play a run of teams out of form and we can punish them. It may even come in the form of a junior player coming through