Pools 1 Mansfield 1
5,150 ( 444 away )

1-0 Super Mols

5000ish - plus 300ish Mansfield

4-3. 2 penalties and 2 sendings off apiece.

Pools 2 Mansfield Town 1 (Oates 2 minutes like at Sunderland) then snuffed out the game. Come on Timi lets have a goal and the winner... Mols. Crowd 4,800 (Mansfield 380 and more trouble from them).

Pools 2 Mansfield 2

Looks like they will sell out so should be a good crowd.

The Stags seem to find a way of winning most of the time and Oates is on fire at the moment so a two nil loss.

Pools 1 - 3 Mansfield
Gate 4750

5100 crowd.
Probably more steward problems.
Result
Win Lose or Draw.

odds on that there will be bother with their lot and the stewards. if i was a steward i,d do a gav tonight. pools missin chances 0 mansfield 2 from set pieces.

1-1 Mols 5123

I'm going to along tonight to see if Pools' players are already on the beach or still prepared to bust a gut in front of 5,000 loyal fans. Hope it's the latter.

2 nil down so far...........

2_2 unbelievable Jeff.
Within a minute!!!!

Appreciate he wants to give Grey game time but not really happening for him

Apart from the goal obviously lol. He'll probably score again now

Point would be a very good result like. Some decent touches from Fletcher. Looks like a player we could sign permanently.

Joe White just pass the ball?

Clean through just square it. Ah well

Long way to go.

Mols looks like he could be out for a bit. Hope he is ok

Mansfield look like they’ve opted for the man mountain physical but capable approach to get out of league two whereas some teams like to opt for football at the top. Running, barging and possession seems to be the formula, that if it gets you promoted means a rebuild the following season as that style only gets you so far up the leagues, great in league two and Challinor’s league but that’s about it.
When we played our normal football last night we were comfortable, but too often we let them not so much dictate the game but boss it.
Despite missing at the end, White impressed me on the ball.

agree with cloughs post match assessment...

“I think they have had two or three shots in the whole game and scored a couple of goals. We must have close to 20 tonight and only scored the two."

...of course they are a good team...but other than our two goals and whites miss at the end... thought they bossed the match from start to finish...could easily have been 4-2 at half time ...for us sterry excellent yet again....but our central defence yet again weak for both goals...and oates gave timi a right run around late on......morris?......about as good as smith.....no acceleration one pace and slow...spent all night making short passes sideways or backwards ....and with his injury record for gods sake dont sign him...

pools have played much better for 90 minutes but have got sod all out of a game. too many average performances across the team. if white had put his late chance away we,d have robbed them. right about morris. he was decent in his early games but did not look fit last night.

lot of thats true about them. their players are very experianced at this level and have all been there before. some of their lads seem to have been around for years like akins, o,toole, perch and lapslie. play and have some players of the type pools need for next season to get some middle ground between their style and ours. no team will have success without getting their fair of 50/50 challenges and winning the second ball.

‘Bossed it’ maybe, but I go to watch football, not barges with turbo boost.
You bemoan our central defence, but what about theirs...? We both scored two goals, two better goals, so for all their possession they nearly went home pointless.
Would I want to watch them every week?.... no thanks, but it’s only what I expected from them.
Mansfield are like a number of teams in this division who fit the identikit profile of the battering ram versus the key approach.

When we go forward with pace we look really good but, for some reason, we suddenly stop the momentum and resort to passing back and across, allowing defenders to organise. So often these tactics culminate with us giving the ball away in dangerous areas and inviting unnecessary pressure.
I really wish we still had Armstrong and Oates. With those two we would have been title contenders.
We need to bust a gut to try and emulate a similar strike partnership.

mansfield play northampton on saturday. that should be a real arm wrestle or barge fest. thing is both teams will finish well above pools at the end of the season and i,d hope we will have a few similar types of players on show next season to enable our better footballers to shine. Bit of both styles combined as i doubt you,ll have real success the present pools way or the in your face bargefest either.

I agree it’s handy to have some players like that in your team, but not to build an entire team of them (apart from the token midget who it turns out is a mere 6 footer, but a midget in comparison).

Did anyone hear what the attendance was?

It was 4577

We are in the fourth tier of English football and it is a mistake thinking that we can maintain a promotion position playing pure football week in, week out. The poor standard of weak referees does not help either.

To quote Jack Charlton, "Bobby could play football but I could stop them playing". I rate the Don Revie Leeds team one of the best because they had a great combination of skilful players and 'animals' to do the dirty work.
Pools would benefit from the addition of a few animals.

winning is all that matters...personally dont care how it is done...pretty losing football is not for me...and would have thought its definitely not a sustainable business model for any club.....

A bloke near me walked out and went to the Mill House pub after Mansfield's second goal then had to ask to be let back in when Pools scored!

To be honest, if Mansfield had got a third when they were well on top it would have been game over. I don't agree that they are one dimensional, they were very good at knocking the ball around on the edge of our box and creating space for chances. They've got a good manager and a strong squad that they've spent loads of money on. Pools need a lot more strength in depth if we're going to be serious promotion contenders next season.

Very happy with the Pools comeback and the way the lads battled it out in the second half. It's a pity Joe White put his shot wide after doing all the hard work to create the chance. After he came on for Mols I thought it was his best game so far in a Pools shirt.

Typical Rhys Oates when he came on. For 10 minutes it looked like he was going to win the game single-handed, then - nothing.

It’s what Rhys Oates does, he storms through and scores goals, unless there’s someone there to stop him....and there was. No goals for Rhys.

Like I just said, a mixed team. As for the ref’s, we had the same comments last year about them and the year before etc etc etc.way back to when it all started.
Ref’s, can’t play with them, can’t play without them, that’s their problem though, they just don’t care who wins.

The ref at Cardiff cared who won. I'll always believe that.

We definitely need some animals in the team - after seeing almost all of our opposition this league has to offer, its blatantly obvious that this style of play is being adapted still at this level. Its ugly... shit to watch... and makes some of the better players who want to play 'football' disappear out the game when it isnt their turn to slide or rugby tackle. But id take this for a season to get us further up the Leagues and more cash in the coffers.

Last night we started well - Morris wasnt match fit in terms of what we have seen of him previously but to tar him with the same brush as Smith is really harsh - it was Morris who nearly had us infront twice if not three times in the opening 15 mins. He is one of our better players in IMO.


Fair play to our defence for keeping it at 2-0 - not their best performances but the big lad up top for the stags was a nuisance all night.
Killip also kept us in the game last night made some unreal saves ! (FYI His contract runs out in the summer also)
White was clean and displays some excellent movement and skill above his years - will no doubt play prem football at some point in his career. Cant believe he didnt put that chance away.

Fletcher is a player i wish we could also keep - had a great first half and should of added to his account late on. Will be a fantastic player in his prime id think.

Feaths was clean and tidy and did enough - Bogle went missing again. Really doesnt step up against the better teams i dont think. Drastically needs another fast strong strike partner with him up top. Oates would thrive next to him.
Grey did enough but had he not got his goal id be cautious the lad still needs a bit more rest - looked well gassed by the final whistle.

ref was rubbish - up there with one of the worst we have had at the vic this season.

overall buzzing we walked away with a point

Still not convinced with Morris. Looks overweight and slow and looking at his record he does not appear to have held his place for long and let go fairly quickly.

See Reports from todays Mail saying clubs from Scottish Prem (probably our feeder Club Motherwell) are interested in Mols. I have a bad feeling a nice sign on fee will be offered for some of our better players out of contract (saving on the transfer fee etc) which may warrant that move away from the Vic. Byrne and Ferguson would also be on the radar you would think of other teams - both had awesome seasons back in the FL.

Interesting programme notes from Mr Singh also - Reckons we did well out of our latest departures (money wise) and all but cemented the fact ZFA wont be back after his loan. Also said more moneys are on their way from last seasons promotion. Fingers crossed its enough to get us some real quality.

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

3 chances wasted.

And?
We battered Oldham for 90 minutes.
Had about 20 shots,hit the woodwork 3 times,16 corners,but we drew 0-0.

chips...."and ?"......ffs.....they...were....better...than...us...on...the...night....and...unlucky....not... to.... win.....the.. game ...easily.....just...saying...like.....imo...

and a few more for them. there will be easier chances missed at the weekemd in the millionairs highlights, match of the day.

a really big effort should be made to keep our real quality before moving on to new players.

top of the league forest green were hardly a team of animals but had steel, height and strength in positions pools do not have. big defender and a big central midfielder who won about everything in the air. add a bit of real pace up front and thats got them where they are.

Can Lee say anything if players leave when out of contract. Didn’t both him and Nelson do that?

Finding a player who has stayed at one club all his career nowadays may be as hard as getting the winning numbers on the euro millions.

Has he actually said anything?

Exactly he can’t. There again players are like most of us you go to work to earn a living and if offered more money and it suits you, you move.

What you’re describing is what goes on at every club that ever existed..... I stand by my belief that 90% of players are just contractors...like their managers.
To be fair there are players who do love the club they play for, but at the end of the day, once the contracts up, they’re anybody’s.
Remember, the only people with a total emotional bond are the fans.