In nets for the Boro on the telly now just made a brave save from Amond.

Aged 40 but looks fitter than he did 10 years ago my favourite ever Pools keeper and I reckon he will play for us again at some point.

Newport’s pitch looks like the Vic West played there, it looked a decent surface when they beat Leicester.

Listening on radio. Thought Newport would give Boro a game in this one and sounds like they are. Cant be easy for Dimi, not much real game time, yet expected to perform In a game like this, which fair play to him he is doing. I have said before I would like to see him at Pools, not just a great keeper but a great ambassador, don't see why it cant happen. We could sign a young keeper 20 year old etc, Dimi could also coach him as well as keeping goal in first team, with a view to understudy taking over between the sticks after one or two seasons, when Dimi would revert to coach/sub keeper on matchdays.

Dimi having a blinder, Boro are terrible never been in the game. Newport should have had a penna as well, they look really up for it, dangerous every time they attack.

Amond just scored a cracker 2-0 Newport!

Matty Dolan ! Must be due one last pay day? I wonder where at ?

Nice one Newport !

So he is.. I always thought he was early 30s, seems to have been around for ages, certainly looks early 30s. Always seemed steady away player , the sort who had we signed 3 or 4 years ago, we may not of been in our current situation , though would of been yet another boro connection like.

Newport could have been 4-0 up at half time. Thought Dimi could have done better for the first one. Very limp wrist. Almond is like a mk2 aguero

Watched it from start to finish, Newport were the better side all over he pitch, anyone who didn’t know better would have thought that Borer were the L2 side they were quite simply pathetic. They threw all of their big names on but didn’t have a shot on target all night - although Hugill hit the outside of the post first half. As referenced above Newport were denied a blatant pen early doors and after a good first half Dimi was at fault for the opening goal but Amonds goal was a class finish. He will undoubtedly be on his way to greater things shortly - I just hope that the goons who sold him on the cheap to Newport ensured that a hefty sell-on clause was included in the deal.

Another player who didn’t want to be here and it showed. For whatever reason I don’t know, so his departure was inevitable. No one has a crystal ball to see how they’ll perform in future. In fairness though, it wasn’t a good time at the club for anyone.

It is a worry though, when so many players at first want to be here, then after 6-12 mths then start sulking and dont want to be here, as it is also a worry that other clubs seem to be able to sign players on a seemingly downward curve and galvanise them. What is it about us? when is it a good time to be at Hartlepool?

Agreed, but this is under different managers, different owners, what’s the one constant over this period. The fans and the floodlights oh dear, surely not.

things have not really changed since i was a kid at the vic in the 1950,s. nearly all local type of players with only a few coming from miles away. is it the club or the area thats the problem. if the club pay even the average wages you,d think players would love to come here as house and shop prices must be lower than the majority of places in the country.

More of our current team are from outside of the area.

7 out of 11 of the last starting line up as an example. It’s simply not true these days that players won’t come to the North East. The only way we’ll have a fully happy squad is if we are winning the fans are behind them and we are competing at the top end of the league. That won’t happen until a manager is given time to build a balanced team without off field disruption. Lads like Amond could probably see the way things were heading.

Understand that Borer's flight back to Teesside last night was cancelled - plane went tech at Cardiff airport. Pulis deserved that. Threw away a chance of playing Man City - missing out on a good pay day - and showed little respect for the travelling fans. Some interesting crack on the fmttm forum including a rumour about Pulis having a go at a fan.

As for Dimi - great bloke - I'd have him back in a heartbeat.................

Not sure if it was the fault of Pulis, he actually played a strong team but Boros players were woeful.

FMTTM is always full of miseries, makes the bunker look like it’s on happy crack.

Sometimes there doesn't always have to be a reason for a cup upset , sometimes it just happens. Newport is one of the few venues were a 1970s cup upset could happen, and it has now , twice. A tight ground, muddy pitch, raucous crowd, many still standing on terraces, not many grounds like that anymore. All the ingredients there, plus Newport have a cup tie sort of squad, with a good mix of good players, workmanlike players, characters and a bit of quality. Boro knocked themselves out of the cup by not doing the business in the first game at the Riverside.

Does anyone really want to sign a 40 year old reserve goalkeeper over Loach, for anything other than sentimental reasons?

Was anyone at the 4-6 loss to Wrexham where Dimi went walkabout all over the pitch?

On occasions he was a star, but on occasions Barron was bollocking him all game.

Yep, me , and its not for sentimental reasons, its because he could do a job at NL level, and also double up as goalkeeping coach to mentor a younger keeper. No real problem with Loach though, obviously at this level for a reason, but think there are better keepers around at this level. I doubt Dimi would come here though , so I wont be losing any sleep over it.

Dimi moved back to the Town before he signed for Boro hoping that Pools would offer him a contract as he was moving back long term with his family. The Boro thing has been a huge and deserved bonus for him.

You see everyone doesn’t have this dystopian view of Hartlepool.

If he wants to keep playing I reckon he’d love to help Pools out again because us giving him a chance ultimately led to him having a really good and lucrative career.

The great thing about that group of good players was that lads from outside the area like Westwood, Darrell Clarke, Humphreys, Dimi, Porter totally embraced the Town and fans.