Build up our hopes then forget to turn up

Far to slow in midfield no number 10 to link the play up.
As for the goals we gave away shocking so to b beat of a team like that hignett must look at his tactics.
What a let down we played 8 men 3 were never in the game.

Badly missed Featherstone

Left back left horribly exposed by the system, hope he can come back from it as was good in second half going forward

Second half, once we settled down played ok BUT still don’t have anyone in the box with a predators instincts. James not in the game and goes down too easily. Was Kioso injured as we could have done with him coming on when richardson came off injured.

It`s a bit like having a new swimming pool built and on completion day you have your trunks on, suns out and there is a turd floating in the pool!

Substitutes the one player who looked like achieving something, was making them shit it every time he got it and left Luke James on

Toure was knackered after he tracked back after losing it. Took him 5 minutes to get back up the pitch

No creativity whatsoever, floated crosses into the box which their keeper caught comfortably. I am concerned our keeper wanders to far up the field and could be caught out with a pass back from one of his own defenders.

I hear the young left back Chaplow-Noble had to suffer pelters from a section of the Neale cooper stand. First game of the season, some ‘fans’ really know how to encourage young lads

Really don't wanna be that guy and I personally didn't say anything when I was there, but the kid looked not so good. Slipped lots, didn't really contain anyone. Granted he's young and it's his first game at this level. He did some good crosses in the second half too.

The only real positive I can bring from it is that was the first game of the season and these players will still be figuring each other out, Hignett probably will too. Looked a bit better in the second half but it honestly felt too little too late.

Where was his help though?

Was terrible to watch supporters and players having a pop with no one encouraging him on the pitch. Would of been the same with kitching, for the first goal he cut out the ball but if they constantly got a man over what can you do?

Learn from it and move on to Tuesday.

Well said Mr HBlue.

I didn't hear him get any stick - in fact I heard many folk quietly saying that he should get pulled before he lost more confidence or got sent off - an understanding and sympathetic approach - he did get a hard time, from a very good winger.

No change from last season from me. Playing like that we will lose more than we win. No urgency, very pedantic, too many crossfield passes allowing two banks of four to set themselves. Noble totally inefficient.
Hignett talks about us fans having no more knowledge than will fit on a postage stamp but I'm afraid, Craig, that your postage stamp is diminishing rapidly.
I said after ten minutes of watching that today that there was only going to be one result and so it was.
I know that key players were out today but that is why you were allowed to amass a so called decent squad, so where is it?????
Now to Luke Williams. It is about time Craig came clean with the fans on Luke. Is he ever going to start???? Why wasn't he on the bench today???? We need the likes of him to unlock defences using the stubborn two banks of four.
Today we played a team that had a trauma of a journey just to compete. Compete they did and made us look second raters. They were faster fitter and had bucket fulls of will to win which we, as usual, didn't have.
Personally that display today disappointed me greatly. We have had all the hype of pre season as usual, we have rallied round, once again, by season ticket purchases, we turned up today and created an atmosphere and what did we get in return??????????
How long are we expected to put up with this mediocrity??????
Yes you've guessed it...........I am steadily reaching the I can't be arsed mode.

Heard of plenty of stick towards Crichlow, including constantly being told to 'stop fucking fannying on with your socks'.

As for William's, Hignett said he is lacking match fitness, well I'm sure Hignett said he would only need 1 or 2 games such is the way he plays. Iv no idea what that means when he has been out for over a year and not sure how he will get match fitness. We still dont know if he played against Sunderland as the club are keeping it a secret and the mail says he sat on training Thursday so I presume he injured again.

Badly missed Molyneaux today imo, James was very poor. Kennedy seems to want to play as a centre forward and Mafuta sits with the centre backs so theres fuck all connecting the defence with the attack. Hignett needs to find a combination that works cos that certainly doesn't.

It was very easy for them today 451 and they just swamped the midfield and stopped us getting any rhythem in our play.
Thought kennedy was far to slow and kabamba and james very poor.
Anyways we have alot of new players but hignett has to learn quick there was no spark, lets just hope on tuesday we bounce back and get a good win.

What does everybody think about Killip today? Personally I thought he was fairly poor? doesn't command his area and was mostly to blame for their first goal? Haven't been convinced by him in pre seaon really but prepared to give him a chance. I'd love to see Dimi in Pools colours again as unlikely as thats ever going to be.

What does everybody think about Killip today? Personally I thought he was fairly poor? doesn't command his area and was mostly to blame for their first goal? Haven't been convinced by him in pre seaon really but prepared to give him a chance. I'd love to see Dimi in Pools colours again as unlikely as thats ever going to be.

He looks very small and he can't judge the flight of the ball was caught underneath it twice.

It was groundhog day for sure but there's another match on Tuesday. I thought we'd get a draw based on the second half, but another long break for a feigned injury killed our momentum when we were well on top. Seen that more than once last season too.

Speaking of groundhog day, 3 up top didn't work at all, any more than it did for Matty Bates. I'd play a back 3 and 2 proper wing backs on Tuesday. Not criticizing any individual players based one one game!

Halifax had a belting win today but let's see what happens down there after a rocket from Hignett and some changes to the team.

[quote="The deluded Mr Turner"]What does everybody think about Killip today?

Thought he was st fault for the first goal, exposed by the defence for the second & exposed by the (non existant) defence for the third. He was probably very nervous going into his first game and is the current England semi -pro goalkeeper, so somebody obviously rates him.
Not going to throw him under the bus after one game.

Brilliant support from the poolies as. Usual.
On the pitch very disappointing afta all the pre season hype and optimism.
Ah well there can only be an improvement on Tuesday.

We have played all tyhose friendlies, none of which I saw. yet it seems I have learned the same as Hignett did from them. Tactically terrible in the first half and only reason we didn't look a defensive shambles in the second was all the players were in the Sutton half.

Sadly, Richardson's injury ended our attacking chances, hopefully he won't be out for long.

We looked very naive and out thought by a manger having his first game in charge. It was unlucky that our attacking midfiekders - Hawkes, Molyneux, Williams are all injured but why Holohan was on the bench is hard to understand.

It looks like Hignett has too much choice and the selection is on favouritism rather than ability. He would be better moving back to his old job and a manager replacing him.

Kioso wasn't fit to play yesterday - calf problem. Hope it's cleared up enough for Tuesday night.

Do you buy your Christmas cards early as well?

[quote="Malcolm Dawes Knew My Father"]

Halifax had a belting win today but let's see what happens down there after a rocket from Hignett and some changes to the team.[/quote
good time to play em then. always seems to happen when one team has a good win and the other a bad defeat then the next match the opposite happens. didn,t go yesterday but loosing the first game of the season will never be a true indicator for the season ahead and people seem to put too much of it. if the defeat had happened in say the middle of october i doubt it would have seemed as bad.

On balance it should have been a draw but they scored more goals than us

Fair summery by Hignet.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNBz8xxjiJg

So if he can see 7 or 8 people having an off day he waits until 80 minutes before changing stuff and 1 change was forced, confused!

Phew!

Kenton Richardson looks likely to miss Tuesday’s trip to FC Halifax Town after being forced off with an ankle injury during the second half of the opening day defeat to Sutton United.

The full-back has been one of the standout performers during pre-season but Craig Hignett revealed that he’s set to miss at least the next week after rolling his ankle.

“It’s just a twisted ankle, I don’t think it’s anything more serious,” said Hignett.

“It will probably mean he will miss the next couple of games which is a blow for him and for us because he’s been doing so well.”

Having stood/sat in different parts of the ground i feel that you get a different view of the game as to where you are.
Certainly where the manager/coaches sit their view is not ideal for seeing what is going on at the other side of the pitch but surely they must have been aware what was happening at left back.
I was close to our left back position and i thought our defending in this area was very poor. RCN did not play well but also seemed not to be very well supported but this is an area of the pitch we must get sorted ASAP.
Even this means playing a right footed player there or just having 3 at the back or whatever it has to be Higgys number one priority as the opposition will be looking at the videos and licking their lips.

Pretty much nailed it there Mr Derwent. All I would add is that the line up - and bench - had me bemused from the off.

I would very much echo the above however I finally reached the 'can't be arsed' mode last season. No season ticket for me this time after 20 years of owning one, although I was there yesterday, paying at the gate. What I witnessed coupled with the comments that I have read here and elsewhere together with the match reports which do not make pleasant reading. Yes it was the opening game of the season, yes two or three key players were missing, yes we were up against a stong Sutton Utd side - whom we never do well against for some reason - however yesterdays performance was simply nowhere near good enough. I've drafted my synopsis of what is going wrong;

1. Hignett, the players and most of the fanbase yet again got carried away pre-season results in meaningless games against dubious opposition. Until the season stats for real, talk of promotion is embarrassing especially following a performance like that - suggest you keep your mouth shut and give your head a reality shake Higgy.
2. The 'kid in a chocolate box' syndrome (c) Craig Harrison 2017 seems to have affected Hignett in expending Raj's budget on a squad of dubious quality and ridiculous size. Hignett repeatedly bulling this group of players up hasn't helped especially his insinuation that he could turn out two sides of equal strength.
3. Does Higgy have ANY idea of his best XI having never shown his hand in pre-season (his words - but what the fcuk was that about?). Surely pre-season is all about establishing your first choice XI and sticking to it? Or am I missing something?
4. We seem to have acquired a dodgy, undersize young keeper - is Dimi still training with the club?
5. We already have a left back who looks great going forward but cannot defend for toffee - and the oppostition know it. Now it appears that we have two. Hignett doesnt have a defensive bone in his body but its not rocket science that 90% of successful teams are built on a sold defence.
6. 'We dont need a 20 goal striker' - ooh me firkin ribs Higgy.
7. Is Williams fit to play or not - time to come clean on that one Im afraid - please stop pulling the wool over the fans eyes and insulting our intelligence.

These are my thoughts on a yet another desparately disappointing opening game - the near 4,000 fans who turned up yesterday don't deserve this and certainly neither does Raj for backing Hignett to the hilt with his hard earned cash in assembling this unproven and on yesterdays display overrated squad. Hopefully Higgy and his players will get their act together in two tough-looking away games this week followed by an equally difficult home game against Fylde - but from what I've seen I'm far from confident.

Pretty honest reflection smokin what annoys me is no matter what pools change manager,players,coaches we carnt seem to change lethargic slow football.
Yesterday sutton did a good job on us tactically how ever pools never seem to have the nounce to counteract whats going wrong quickly.

Only 4/10 teams promoted in the last 5 years had a 20 goal a season striker and Rooney only got exactly 20 for Salford last year so I'd say that wasn't untrue

Didn't think Killip looked confident at all, regardless, I don't feel he could of done much to keep the score down.

Just watched the highlights and if you watch their third goal you will see Gus trying to go with their three breakaway players. He looks absolutely leaden footed.
I really hope he was suffering from a knock because the difference in fitness between him and the Sutton players was frightening.
We have been given the impression that there was an emphasis on fitness this term.
Sutton looked fitter than us all over the pitch. That was the impression I got anyway.
Our lads get to travel the day before the game on most occasions. On Saturday Sutton travelled up by train, missed their Grand central connection, rearranged to LNER and some of their players STOOD for the whole journey.
They then gave us a lesson in fitness, desire, commitment, fought tenaciously for each other and wanted it far more than we appeared to.
Yes we had more possession in the second half but that was mainly because they sat back and defended as if their lives depended on it, whilst we laboriously passed the ball backwards and forwards across the pitch, allowing them to organise their two banks of four as well as get a breather due to our slow, pedestrian build up.
They still threatened our goal through intelligent breakaways and actually could have scored more.
We talk a good game and their management and players organised and played a good game.
Now we're talking about the six points we are going to get on the road in the next two games.
I really hope that that was a blip on Saturday and it does shake us up because, even though it is only one game played, there was a lot of similarities on show.
I really couldn't believe my eyes on Saturday. Hignett went on and on last season about starting well and avoiding playing catch up after poor starts and then talking about us playing well second half. He couldn't get the message across then and he still hasn't got it across.
The players are professionals and I, for one, will not tolerate this, "well a few of them didn't turn up today". We were saying last season things like " it all depends which team turns up" Nothing has changed there either.
Finally, he needs to get the midfield combination sorted. There wasn't an ounce of pace in there, or much aggression. Has he told Gus to curb it????
More aggression, more urgency, more width and less leaden footed build up would be a good place to start.

Thought he had a decent game but as you say he is slow. We have been crying out for pace in the middle, Kennedy and Mafuta will not help in that respect so the issue hasnt been addressed. Bale looks to have energy and a tackle in him but seems to be about 8th choice in the middle.

Teams can just walk through us which has been the case for years now.

Oh and yet another old, fat, vastly overweight centre back who got the better of us time and time again.

They had a man over all the time but he needs to run with more conviction? Morons are very hard on lack of effort are you suggesting he wasn't trying? People moaned at boydy for not trying when he had a languid style. Why did no one go over to tell him to get his head up and encourage him? Nah just get noble to have a pop at him whilst Kennedy escaped from the game without any criticism.

I truly dispair at our fans when we lose its lack of effort or too much hype before the season? We weren't organised enough we were missing our best player and only 3 creative players. Then he played Kennedy over featherstone. Those are the reasons we lost but keep digging out these young loanees not like we having written off ones before who have gone on to better things is it.

No sign of a Williams in the team news update for Halifax.

When’s he getting his 2 games for fitness?

Says he is moving closer to fitness with Anderson and Molyneaux.

A few weeks ago we said we had too many right backs, Donaldson injured, Richardson injured, Kioso a doubt. Do we have anyone else?

Just had a chat with a mate of mine whos a big Huddersfield supporter.
As regard Critchlow Noble he said hes a member of the Elite development squad and although never played for the first team he has heard about him and the reports were upbeat and encouraging. Apparently it the club policy to send these out on loan to experience "mens" football to see if they sink or swin.
His words not mine but interesting to hear.

How big is he, 7ft or more?

picking up a harrogate youth team player en route.

We've played 1 game.

Last season Anderson was wrote off as our "worst centre back ever" after 1 half in a friendly. At least this season weve moved upto a full 90 minutes in a league game before writing our new players off.