Do we need to change we seem to get punished for all our mistakes yet we never capitalise on any mistakes teams make.

Start with the keeper. I'm sorry, but for me the lads costing us a goal a game. Looping header Sutton - caught under it and again against Fylde. Todays 3rd goal he either comes or he doesn't. Looked to be in no man's land to me.

After the other night and playing well and looking solid I’m not sure why we had to switch to a back four.

But the keeper is struggling, he looks nervous a little out of his depth and he lacked bravery for the winner. Early days hope he can turn it around as he he’s obviously better than he’s showing. Playing for a team like Braintree compared to playing at the Vic is a real step up but we’re conceding awful goals.

Let’s see if we can get Dimi back!!!!

Higgy has got to sort it sooner or later and the sooner the better. I watched him as he walked off. He looked forlorn.
Maybe we need a defensive coach and the goalie needs a bit of coaching and confidence building, Ask Dimi to help us out, unless he's got another club. Personally I don't think Killip is tall enough.
We don't seem to be able to keep the back door shut and defensive work doesn't seem to appeal to Higgy. Maybe Big Sam( no not Allardyce) or Ben Clark could help if they're available.
Unless he gets us up and running PDQ, I can see him going back to his old role.
There is something up with Noble. I know not what it is but something is wrong. He doesn't seem interested and is showing very little enthusiasm from where I sit.
Obviously there a few little things that will fade away with a few decent wins but that needs to start happening before they turn into big things.

I mentioned that 3 weeks back and got crucified as per by the usual band of righteous brothers

It’s difficult to single out the keeper as he’s young and is rated but it’s obvious that he is struggling. Lots in the ground and posts on here have mentioned that he seems nervous and I’d agree. Few people today taking about Dimi signing, don’t know how realistic this is but would be a great move. Would allow the young man to have some pressure removed and a very experienced GK to guide him.

You'll get used to it, Joe. It's water off a duck's back after a while.

Haha I rest my case. Its always been water off a ducks back pal. If I alIowed clowns like Phil to bother me in the slightest I would have stopped posting years ago like so many others who have been bullied off the board for non-conformance.

Not really.

We all want our team to do well, and all get frustrated when performances aren’t up to scratch and Killip hasn’t been great it’s fair to say but I can see a marked difference between constructive comment and just being an attention seeking Doyle.

Killip and the young left back are young lads at the end of the day not earning a great deal of money trying to make a way in the game, neither deserve writing off this early.

Yaaaaawn, entirely predictably the arch-plonker himself pitches in with his usual diatribe of personal abuse - no matter how much things change they remain the same. For someone who has nothing more in his sad life than to be omnipresent on this board as the seagull that keeps shitting on my car is outside of my house, it is bit rich to describe others as attention seeking doyles.

However, to get back to the football, from what I have seen neither Killip nor the 'young left back' are man enough for NL mens football just yet. However I am certainly not 'writing them off' there is ample time for them to progress to this level - but not at the cost of furhter priceless points being thrown away as a result of their (current) inadequacies. Time alone will tell who is correct, the abused or the abuser.

If Phil is Hignett you are Monkeybutt.

Does ‘Pools getting beat give you a big bonk on?

You could count on Sussex’s teeth the amount of times you post on here after we win

You could count on Sussex’s teeth the amount of times you post on here after we win[/quote]


"after we win" . almost as rare as you having a wash you rat faced bastad..

Wasn’t at the match on Saturday but just watched the goals on telly.

Can’t blame the keeper for any of them, just rank bad defending. Is he the new escape goat this season?

Really? The 3rd he was far too slow off his line then he bottled it going in with his feet. He should and could have been out sharper and smothered it. Never mind the efforts he parried back into the box and shouldve cost us.
What cost us just as dearly is how deep that MF pairing of Mafuta and Featherstone sat. Allowing the opposition all the time in the world to find a pass; no pressure on the ball. One maybe sits in, but not two. Far too negative especially at home.

Really? The 3rd he was far too slow off his line then he bottled it going in with his feet. He should and could have been out sharper and smothered it. Never mind the efforts he parried back into the box and shouldve cost us.
What cost us just as dearly is how deep that MF pairing of Mafuta and Featherstone sat. Allowing the opposition all the time in the world to find a pass; no pressure on the ball. One maybe sits in, but not two. Far too negative especially at home.

Killip defo at fault for the 3rd, too slow and bottled it as someone else says. Loach used to make 1 or 2 brilliant saves a game, sadly were now missing them. Been a shaky start but he is a young lad and am sure he will get better. Maybe a settled defence will help if we can stop getting so many Injuries.

First 2 really poor defending,2nd one they got the rub of the green, 3rd if the keeper had went down with
his body and arms instead of his feet he may well have stopped the square pass. HE HAS TO BE BRAVER.

I said it pre season we need a recognised Centre Forward until we do the chances will go begging.
As good as they are Muir and Gime are No 10s. Higgnet stated in his opinion we don,t.

We created plenty of good play in the final third.

But what do i know.

Low lights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IcjNN_DTwg

Watch Noble jump out of a tackle FFS! Some good crosses into the box with no one attacking them, and two scrappy goals by them. Grrrr!

Sounds like some people would prefer a nutter keeper who flies out wipes the striker out and concedes a penalty rather than one who tries to make a save when he is completely exposed by shit defending.

whether he is exposed or not, you have to be brave (or stupid) to be a keeper. Not one coach will teach going out feet first like that.

He should have got to the ball long before that point the first touch was awful from the Bromley player it was very poor goalkeeping from his initial decision making to delay coming off his line to a lack of bravery from when confronted by the one on one.

Even Hignett said he’s struggling.

I think that’s harsh.

think hignett in his interviews gets a lot of stuff right. its his inability to do anything about it that gets me.

Ha! It's a minor relief that Pools next 3 fixtures are away to Chorley, home to Wrexham and away to Torquay. He should be able to answer his own question as to whether Pools can afford to play expansive football or need to put the shutters up and try to hit them on the break.

Not conceding has to be the priority. A couple more 1-0 wins would do nicely.

totally agree. do not mind a little boredom and nail biteing than being totally peed off like last tuesday night or saturday if i,d attended.

Absolutely agree, I would settle for 1-0 every week and be bored shitless for 90 minutes in order for the team to achieve that - at least until we are actually properly established in the top 10 and can be regarded as genuine promotion contenders. At present however we are a million miles from that as a direct result of Hignett’s ‘make do and mend’ philosophy when it comes to the defensive positions and his determination to play flowing, attacking football - and to hell with the consequences.

Having said that It appears from his latest interview that not for the first time in his on/off tenure as Pools coach/boss/DOF, the penny seems to be beginning to drop that his revamped squad still isn’t quite capable of playing the way he wants hence his comment ‘we haven’t got the players to do that as yet’. This may be construed either that he has signed inadequate players for certain positions or perhaps a veiled criticism of Raj for knocking him back on some of the players that he wanted to secure. If so he is walking on thin ice with Raj until such time that he manages to get a half decent points total on the board.

As far as I can see nothing less than taking all three points from Crawley will suffice as the Wrexham game is likely to end in grief with a fearsome BH Monday Vic crowd putting the willies up Killip in addition to the opposition who will inevitably prey on the weaknesses that he has displayed to date and which most of the contributors to this board and indeed the local media have already referenced.

I think it's pretty clear he means he needs Molyneux, Hawkes and one or two others back in action - and Williams having a career at Pools that extends to more than the odd cameo substitute appearance. Really not holding my breath any longer on that one.

And it's Chorley on Saturday, not Crawley.

Yes upon reflection you are probably correct I only caught the back end of the interview so apologies for misconstruiing that one board police.

[quote="Smokin Joe"revamped squad still isn’t quite capable of playing the way he wants hence his comment ‘we haven’t got the players to do that as yet’. This may be construed either that he has signed inadequate players for certain positions
surely you play to the players you have got and base the tactics round what they can do rather than implement stuff that they cannot do and make em look worse.

[quote=

And it's Chorley on Saturday, not Crawley.[/quote]
and if we cannot get 3 points against them , who have been hammered in the last 2 games then we have problems. even a draw would seem like a defeat.

Wonder how many poolies are going to turn up at Crawley my bet is 15.
They are away at Orient.

it,ll be 15 more than they,ll bring to their league match at the vic.

I'm not one for pressing the panic button yet, but if we don't win on Saturday it will be very concerning

Phil i dont think we should give them the benefit of excuses we can all see where the deficiencies are and its upto them to rectifie them not just with words with actions.
Raj will be pissed off cos looking at the current situation certain players are no where near good enough if we are to make a challenge this season for promotion going on the evidence of the first 5 games.
I will be at chorley on saturday and i carnt believe im going more in hope than expectation very sad but realistic.

Chorley should not be a problem, They have had a poor start
And are virtually the same squad that won promotion.
They need to sign players quickly or will be going back where they came from.

If we don,t win Saturday( And i expect us to) then Raj and Higgy will be
Having a serious talk come Tuesday.

I don,t know what Higgy,s game is at the moment(press talk) but it could back fire big style.

He was at it again calling certain unnamed players out for their poor attitude after Saturday. It reminds me a bit of Neale Cooper lashing out at the players after some early bad results at the beginning of the 2012/2013 season - and that ended very badly.

Hope I'm wrong because I like what Hignett is trying to do and anyway it's way too soon for another turn on the new manager merry-go-round, but it feels like there's a rabbit away somewhere.

So he is having a go at players in general for social media use, thinking they have made it already, just being happy to be labelled a 'professional footballer' and generally acting like billy big bollocks.

Could it be argued that the way the club treats them be making them more like this?

Starting with the clubs website and social media, constant interviews both after they sign and after games etc, video montages like we did for Molyneaux signing? Didnt the official website cover some clothing company giving Noble some clothes too? The park life videos of the players pissing about pre game etc.

The club open day getting them to meet the fans etc, staying over in posh hotels nights before games etc when they see other getting the train on the dat.

Is the club not adding to them thinking they are above their station? Were a lower national league side yet are we treating the players like they have already made it?

Maybe I'm talking shit I dunno?

I think the official website and the clubs media departments do a great job btw

Higgy also had a dig at the backroom staff regarding players not getting back to fitness quick enough.
If this is true then they are on thin ice, As its not Higgy who pays the wages.
And Raj may react to Higgy,s feelings with cuts, They are close friends after all.

It won, t be Higgy thats leaving thats certain.

With regard to players getting back to fitness, That would not have prevented the poor defending on saturday.
That starts and stops at the coaches feet, And if does not improve then, People should be brought in (coaches) to make sure it does.

Not sure how long Hubbard has been at the club but he is employed as strength and conditioning coach so for me, the buck stops with him if they aren’t fit enough. Are the programmes they are given not intense enough for the off season. It shouldn’t be possible for part time teams to look fitter than us. It’s criminal for that to be happening at this early stage.


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Lots of differing views here, Hignett to me is sounding off out of frustration. After the signings we have brought in promotion is our aim simple a# that. A few have mentioned Craig Hubbard the strength and conditioning coach , I would of thought the physio would be ultimately responsible for getting injured players fit? When Buster was here the players seemed to get through injury quicker than they do now.? Personally I think Hignetts point is valid, that basically some players can’t be arsed to get fit, they are happy to take a wage and are not chomping at the bit to get fit like they did when he was a player. Maybes he should have kept his views inside the dressing room at this early stage in the season?

A poor workman blames his tools!

It appears to me to be Groundhog Day all over again, yes Hignett has introduced two or three quality signings but there are still too many lazy, unfit, injury-prone, workmanlike players in their comfort zone at the club coupled with ineffective coaching, backroom staff etc etc.

Three years into life in the NL and the club is still run as though it is one of the 92, currently propped up by Raj’s hard earned cash. On several occasions last season Hignett stated that ‘this is as bad as it gets’ promising great things once he had an opportunity to clear out the deadwood in the close season. Except like so many of his predecessors he didn’t clear out quite enough of the dross when he had a golden opportunity to do so.

So we now have a huge squad of 23/24 pros amassed by Hignett with no reserve team to enable those outside of the first team to retain match fitness. 16-18 quality players would have sufficed enhanced by loanees in times of underperformance and injury.

The likes of Gateshead and Darlo are currently flirting with local EFL sides with the aim of securing young talent on half-season loans but if I were Raj I would be loathe to allow Hignett anywhere near the purse strings except perhaps to introduce a keeper as an alternative to the under-pressure Killip who seriously needs to get his act together over the BH weekend games.

He may believe that he is telling it like it is and he’s doubtless more than partly correct but once a manager starts slating his players in public the next step is the loss of the dressing room and we all know from experience where that leads.

Getting changed at The Grand like Leeds did? Always thought it was big club snobbery but if they'd lost the dressing room it was fair enough.

problem is football is an industry where the workers on their main day of the week[the matchday] are in the public view. we all have eyes and do not slate players of your club without any reason whatsoever. cannot see why the manager cannot either as i,m sure he would praise them if the time for praise came. if he said nothing then oh he is making excuses once again for another shite money wasting performance to watch.

Don't think the main issue is with the ones who are turning out, not even the ones who are struggling at the minute - there's no lack of effort on the pitch. Poor judgement at times definitely, but not lack of effort.

The best outcome this week would be a two or three players being declared fit again after longish absences.

I think its fair to say, If we had taken a third of our chances or had the rub of the green we would be unbeaten.

Was hoping we would have signed dimi before the weekend,we so desperately need a commanding goalie.