It will turn a horrific start.

Into a mere poor one.

It will make it perfectly satisfactory imo. Only those who had stupidly high expectations would class it as poor.

Yeah I had dreams of being 17th ish after 9 games, avoiding relegation was our main target want it?

You wouldn't dream of a satisfactory start would u? You would only dream of a perfect start surely?

Unless I'm mistaken I didn't say a win would make it a perfect start.

Sorry like but a win on saturday doesnt make it a satisfactory start at all.

What happens in the following games after that will determine that.

If win saturday but lose the following two, would you still be satisfied?

We would be bottom 4.

If we win the following 2, we will be around 10th. That would constitute satisfactory.

Ah sorry I didn't realise it was only AFTER the next game that we can officially give an opinion on our season.

ignore list getting top heavy these days.

Eeee I EE I EE I O

Up to 17th we go

When we get to 17th, this is what we'll sing

We all love you, we all love you

Satisfactory is our king.

League tables are totally irrelevant at this time of year.

If we can pick up a win on Saturday we will be only 5 points behind the team who was top going into the game which would mean even after a pretty disasterous to say the least opening half dozen games we have managed to stay within touching distance with the end of the table we need to end up in.

So basically you expected us to walk this league and you're underwhelmed because we aren't top of the league and won every match..... ?

Nope
Expecting play off's as a minimum

You another happy to avoid relegation?

What are you babbling on about its the start of September.

If we win on Saturday we have won three in a row, so we'd certainly have reason to look forward as we can't do anything about what's gone.

Babbling

Not at all, just stating not making at least the play off's would be a poor season, a draw tonight for Chester, would have seen us in the relegation zone after nine games, in which we have played well once, Guisley was a win but terrible performance.

Think the consenus is that we have played well twice isnt it?

And to be fair we have won two on the belt and if we make it 3 on saturday then we are clearly on the up.

But to say its satisfactory is very hartlepool like.

Its only satisfactory if its followed up with a rise in the table.

No one has said 17th would be a good finishing position.

It's the start of September. We're finding our feet as most sides do when they experience this league for the first time. It's about how you finish not how you start and as Chip says with such a large squad and hopefully with our superior fitness then we will only get better and gain positions.

Some people thought we would just stroll along and win every game.

They are pretty dumb people.

You appear desperate to be negative, and look for angles for negativity.

I couldn't give a single fook how Chester got on tonight they didn't even used print League tables until about ten games in back in the day. I didn't even know they were playing or where they were in relation to us.

Yes the first 6 games were grim, but we are showing signs that we are adjusting to this level and now realise what is required to get results at it. If we can win on Saturday which is very achievable we will be 5 points behind a team that started the day top. We have nothing to fear in this League and more performances like we'll saw on Saturday will soon make us forget about the start and how little it could matter come the end of the season. What position we finish the day in is totally irellavant.

Nobody would be saying it is satisfactory at all but it would give us hope that we can end up competing at the end of the table everybody wants us to be at once the table starts to take proper shape.

You were giving people live updates of the League table when we went 1-0 down at Macclesfield about 120 minutes into the season which is laughable.

Dont tell me you were taking me serious that night.

I wasn't but it's more a comment towards Rinkender going on about fucking Chester playing tonight and where it could have left us in the table.

I agree its too early to judge.

But look at it like this, in 3 games time we are a quarter of the way through the season.

Thats a bit worrying in itself.

if after 11 games our record is

W D L
5 2 4

The that is actually very good after the start we made.

But if I was to be ultra negative, it could be

W D L
2 2 7

Which would be what?

If my aunty had a cock she'd be my uncle!

And drawn the other 4 and so far remain unbeaten I would much rather be in Dagenham's position than ours to be fair. As for the 4000 crowd, make it a pound to get in and 5000 might turn up on Saturday, there were only 2900 the week before. There maybe some looking for reasons to be negative, but It seems some people are looking for reasons to be positive as well.

I don't remember many people saying we would finish below play offs before the season started. We have this same conversation season after season, after we make a poor start. Lets hope we can get a run going, as I don't want to see a post in December saying, we are only at the halfway stage, still plenty of time... blah blah blah ! as has been the case over the last 6 seasons.

Do you remember that year under Wadsworth where we were unbeaten 9 games into the season... where did we come that year? I know it wasn't top half.

As has been said, the league table doesn't matter at this time - one win could take us within a point of the playoffs (or even squeak in there), likewise one loss and we would be back in the drop zone. You can't read anything into it yet.

Can you remember 2006/7? Or had you stopped going then?

Officially the Colonel stopped going in 1916 after the Zeppelin raid when struck on the head by a frozen piece of bratwurst shrapnel. Quoted as saying it was all too dangerous to go now but would comment when something called the Electromagneticinterwebbythingameebob was invented (they laughed at the time). He spent his time in between, riding around the country train spotting and causing chew.

Pools 40-1 with bet365 and 50-1 with skybet those odds will tumble if we do well in the next 3.

In Chris Turner's first full season in charge (1999/2000) Pools made a horrendous start - second bottom with one win on 11th September and still third bottom (with 2 wins) at the end of the month. They made the play-offs.

Admittedly I thought at the time we were in a false position and had a decent squad, but they took a couple of months to click into gear. Time will tell if Harrison and his players can turn things around equally spectacularly, but there's still plenty of time for them to put things right.

I'm looking forward to Saturday -get a decent result against one of the form sides in the division and who gives a toss if we're 17th with 37 games to go?

Dont think anyone would. there again I think only one person was saying differently.

Same in 2001 thanks to one Gordon Watson, they say one man doesn't make a team, but he came close. If we could unearth a similar type of player now, I would have no doubt we would challenging for a top 2 spot. Plenty of examples to back up any argument about starting bad, good or indifferent and finishing bad , good or indifferent over the years. It hasn't been a good start, cant see how anyone can say otherwise, but the last 2 games, suggest things could improve. The next 3 games will tell a story, even though if we lose all 3 there will be some saying its only 11 games/October etc. Pools got promoted in 68 and 91 through late runs from March onwards, so we are well aware what is possible, poor starts or otherwise.

League tables only matter when your doing well.

I wouldn't have said Watson made the team.

We had Humphreys, Clarke, Williams, Tinkler to name but a few...

The signing of Paul Smith made an equal impact, it was before the days of assist stats being readily available but I'd love to know how many goals he had a hand in during the back half of that season.

They only actually matter when the season ends.

For how many of the 46 games were we in the bottom 2 last season? 3 maybe.

We certainly did have some other decent players but Watson's performance against Hull, who were either top or close to it at the time, gave them all belief. he was magnificent, Hull shat themselves and after that the team knew they could beat anybody.

Like Gary Lineker in 1990 World Cup but as a full team?

No wonder we won 4-0.

That's the way I remember it. We'd looked disjointed until that match but Watson just went at Hull. He hit the ball so hard from distance that they didn't know what to do and he completely bossed the game. Smith was a superb player but I don't recall him having that sort of impact on everybody else.

Having said all that I do have a shit memory for football...