In a game dominated by Southend 5 things stood out

1. Collins had as good a game as I have ever seen him play
2. Burgess defended well too
3. Walker's strike was excellent technique
4. Everyone tried hard even Mr Walton run his socks off
5. When we played 5 and 10 ard balls into Luke Williamms or Luke James for the latter I counted only 4 pases to feet for him all game one resulted in a penalty appeal, two caused fouls and another a strong drive parried by the keeper.

We did not loose, but specialised in defensive goalmouth last ditch defending

Nice to hear. If we win most of our Home games (which we currently are), and defend like trojans in the Away games against teams around us (which we currently are), with two Away victories thrown in against the bottom sides( more than do-able), we will get to the play-offs.

What does everyone reckon will be needed for the play offs this year? Simply have to presume it will be less than normal due to league being so tight?

Could 68 points do it?

67-68. We've got 14 games to go? It's do-able OK.

70 PTS and we would be there abouts like. Good benchmark to aim for.

I reckon 71-72 this year. Which means we'll have to do something like, W10 D0 L 4 or W9 D4 L1.

Not totally impossible but highly improbable, we had to win last night but even then it was a very tall order. Lets just finish as well as we can and chase 7th as hard as we can, anything north of 60 points and in the top half can be seen as something to build on and progress considering the way we started the season and the average age of the team.

I reckon we need a minimum of 28 points from our remaining 14 games and that should do it. 2 points average per game is a tall order but not impossible.
We need to keep Williams though and/or another loanee of similar quality.
A bit of luck with injuries/suspensions would be welcome also.
Hey, why not eh ???

there are always gonna be games where, even though we can match any team in the division, the opposition is simply going to be better than us on the day

It's these days the team has to dig in and battle, and show different qualities

Scunthorpe displayed it against us, we were the better football team on the day. On another day Scunthorpe will be the better football team, and then it's us who will have to dig in and not let them beat us

The teams who can get points in all kinds of situations, and play in more than one or two ways, are the ones who will ultimately be successful

Some teams can only play one way, and if they don't get the better of it on any given day, then they can't change it and they lose the game. I think we can mix it, and can get results where we ought not to have done by rights (same as any team who ends up at the top of the division)

Last night a case in point, Southend were due a good performance and sounds like they put one in - but crucially it wasn't enough to beat us. They will know we are a threat to them, and what a great time it would be for Pools to go on a decent run to the end of the season

Its very similar to 1990-91. 14 games to go, just coming into form......nobody expecting TOO much....

Eddie Kyle summed it up perfectly for me last night when he said, this is an exciting young team in the making, and stood up to a real test last night... a game where they had to show a different side to how they normally would like to play. The times it doesn't go your way in possession stakes, you have to be able to do this

Whether or not we make the p,lay offs, the fact is Colin Cooper is assembling the nucleus of an exciting young team, which will only get better in future

Newport are the biggest threat to the top 7 now crucial result for them last night, they are good at home and crucially have the games in hand at home and most of the teams coming to play them mid week are going to be arriving there after a long trip. They have 4 games in hand on us, and they are home games which is a big incentive.

Our start will cost us.

all we can do is put them under pressure, by winning as many as we can.

Their home situation is a massive advantage to them agreed, but all it takes is for them to lose a little bit of impetus/ inspiration in their home games and we have to be in a position to pounce

If kept together

that's the danger. We haven't had a group of up and coming players like this for quite a while

We certainly have some exciting prospects coming through, but...

Do you think by letting baldwin go at just 500k, a snip in my eyes, we've given clubs the impression we'll let people go for peanuts?

We could have dug our heels in over baldwin, maybe its refreshing in this modern day that a club will do whats best for the player but we could have stood firm, said bugger off jack, your under contract till the summer and even then we are extending it for another year now get your head down n play.

I have a bit of a fear now that exciting talents like duckworth, james and walker could be sold off for peanuts, with FFP screwing us over, we get diddly in return to spend on the squad.

I hope this is a one off n we can be a bit more twat-ish over transfers in the future.

is 500k for baldwin really a snip though? I know it shouldn't matter but we are a league 2 side and that is quite a lot of money for someone that far down.

I agree, I think he will go onto bigger and better things but we should gain from this also which would make the deal probably closer (if not over) 1 million with the potential add ons.

I think Luke James will eventually will go for more, not because I think he is better than baldwin, but he is a striker and usually they do go for higher transfer fees.

What I am hoping, is that we at least keep the squad together for a couple of season; because it's refreshing to see some of the football we are playing at the moment as opposed to the depressing, boring stuff from the last 3 or 4 seasons.

It'll be Cooper we struggle to hold onto. You watch this berk at Boro screw it up (signing Tomlin on a three-and-a-half year deal is a HUGE fuck up to start with..) and be out of a job by the start of next season...

Nightmare situation that if Cooper leaves and takes the likes of James, Duckworth and Walker with him.

I can't even think of that situation!!!!

It's potentially a good signing for Pools. He's a good player Tomlin and I hope he does well because he plays in the hole, which pushes Luke Williams further down Boro's pecking order.

I agree about Cooper being the one we need to hold onto

It's been a long time since anybody wanted any of our managers

A repeat of this run-in to the end of our first promotion season would be nice!

http://www.inthemadcrowd.co.uk/UI/Seaso ... 967/68&t=1

Keeping cooper is key, there are lots of players out of contact this year and he has a much bigger scope to mould his own team
So far it seems he has had a lot more hits than misses, so holding onto him is vital, IOR need to back him though

I expected us to go up, after the finish to 89/90, just surprised we left it so late, had give up after Lincoln beat us away, then...

Great result last night, showed some resilience which is a good sign. Play offs are do-able but cant see it myself.

My mate made a good point last week......use the money off the Baldwin Transfer to purchase the ground......That way he will remembered for a huge turning point in the history of the club......or maybe not?.....
How much do HBC want again?

Have to say kens explanation of how the money can be used made no sense to me
In theory you could have clubs sitting on piles if cash they can't use

Ie if only 100k can go to this seasons FFP and the other 300k we get from Peterborough can't go on players what is to stop it just sitting there ?
What if we sell James for 1mill but only 200k up front , is that another 600k that just sits there and can't be used on players ?
I mean would all that extra cash only be allowed to be used to fund an army of secretaries and cleaners ?

aye if they really wanted the ground, now they have the platform to buy it. It's cash the club could not have budgeted for

The only downside now is the dickhead twats at the council would also see it as an opportunity to increase the asking price!!!