Expecting the winless run to extend to the embarrassing figure of 20 games league 2 fixtures.
Them 4
Us. 2

losing there and at sutton are games that will not send us down. its dropping points against gillingham, colchester and crewe when you are on top makes the difference. 2 nil to them.

Looking at our season as if it's a mini-league where the only games that matter are the ones against the bottom 6 or 8 is half-way to accepting that relegation is nailed on.

Sooner or later Pools are going to have to re-learn how to battle for 90+ minutes, get the lucky breaks and nick an away point or three at places where they're not expected to do anything.

Curle's first task is to get Pools fit enough to last out games and make them hard to beat. Can't get the breaks without at least managing that.

The Hartley horror show started on the first Saturday of the season with the 4-0 at Walsall. As bad as that looked on the day, Walsall have only won once in the league since and their current form is even worse than ours!

1-1 battling game

Looking at our season as if it's a mini-league where the only games that matter are the ones against the bottom 6 or 8 is half-way to accepting that relegation is nailed on.

Well that attitude worked for both charlton and burnley in their seasons in the premier league. Lasted longer than both should really have done with the players they had at their disposal. A win against those around you is more important than beating the top two in the league then being defeated by those around you. Could not give a toss if leyton orient carry on winning and end up 40 points better off than us but will if rochdale, gillingham etc have a point more than us.

3-0

Mansfield have a lot of excellent players for this level and are well coached by a decent, experienced manager who has been with them for a couple of seasons; they are formidable proposition. Not expecting any points but hoping Curle has made us harder to beat

Stags 3 Pools 0

Burnley under Sean Dyche regularly played against teams with reserves who cost more than his entire squad. They never went into games with the attitude that they were going to get beat anyway so it was hardly worth turning up.

no, but they were hard to beat at home if they were hammered by the top sides away from home. this never seemed to worry him or the few burnley fans i know, but like charlton it wasn,t going to last forever. pools could well follow the same line but only on a temporary one season level and then grow. this season is all about staying in the league no matter how its done. not bothered about the result at mansfield but bloody bothered if donny rovers beat us a few days later.

2-0 defeat

Playing a good side with a bigger budget and excellent manager at this level-even if we werent as bad as we are anything from this game would be a bonus.

Expect the way Curle will have us playing will stop us getting a pasting but dont see anything other than a comfortable defeat.
Also he needs to play our best defence--we got away with it against Gillingham as they were so bad--but won't be so lucky Friday.

if the weather forecast is correct it could be a wet and windy night at field mill so it could be a bit of a leveller. i,ll grasp at any straw available is suppose.

Stags 3 Pools 0

I find it so sad that virtually to a man nobody gives us a chance unless it is a fluke result. The reason is we have seen what I believe is one of the poorest squads in my 70+ yrs of supporting Pools. I doubt if more than four or five of the squad would find a place at a club in our league.

Followed Pools 47/48 seasons.
Remember the 89/90 team being shite but Sir Cyril somehow created a double miracle keeping us up then promotion the next season.
Id class this season finishing 22nd a miracle.

Hopefully we somehow still in the EFL come May!

bad decision to put Shelton in front of Cooke and Mcdonald in front of Odour
Is Niang still on concussion protocol?

Long night ahead...

Stags 0 Pools 1 Bring on Donny and hope Mols if he plays has an off night.

every club gets a shock result, but any points away from home have always has a shock element for me with pools. even with decent sides pools can always manage shit away performances then hammer the same club later in the season at the vic.

anything here would be on a level with beating Stoke 1-0 back in 1993

shelton already looking out of his depth

Decent crowd on. www.hesgoal.com

awful ball from murray leads to decent chance
Boyd says he doesnt come across as a right back.....ditto centre back!

good save Killip--christ knows what Murray was doing giving the bloke so much space

great double save Killip
Weak as piss defence though, and Tumility and Murray down the right are an accident waiting to happen.

Team trying hard enough but the lack of quality is painful

Co-Commentator "You can tell Mansfield are a lot higher than this lot in the league" How very rude but true....

lol cracking strike from Murray unlucky

Other than murray shot, thats one of the worst halves for hartlepool i have seen in a long time

Living dangerously but still in it, thanks to Killip. We need Umerah and Cooke on for the second half - these's nothing happening with Ndjoli up top and Crawford in behind him.

We look 2 divisions apart

Can't fault effort but it's tough to watch
Both Mansfield full backs v high--Ferguson doing well against his but we look lost on our right hand side.
Cooke has to come on for Shelton and Umerah for Crawford or Ndjoli--right now just kick it anyway and hoping for the 0-0

and that was only in the warm up. at least its still level so one plus point. problem may be the few passengers we are carrying might be the problem in the end.

not sure where the marking was there but been coming
Christ on a bike we are bad.

Floodgates ?

2-0--what a crock of shite we have at the back-so weak

We are so poor getting a lesson in football.
Our players are playing like they have never seen a football before.
Utter crap

Pre-season decided this. I said back then we'd be utter tosh as a result. And funnily enough, we have a couple of new systems this evening to 'trial' out.

For those who couldn't see this was coming - take the blinkers off - utter FARCE.

2-1 great finish Umerah....
absolute gift

Blimey & great finish.

Umerah done v well since he came on

Hasn’t he just?!

lol---can we hang on
Mansfiled must be fuming !

Josh Umerah again!!!

Wow....ha ha

GET IN!!!!!!!

There's a very long road ahead. But first time in a while, I've finished the match with a smile. Poor for 90% of the game, but great comeback.

wow---most depressing first hour of football in a long time but great finish.
Shows how much is played in the head, once they messed up the first goal Mansfield bottled it
Well done Umerah, and cant fault the effort overall---that result probably papers over a LOT of issues but we have had precious little to shout about all season so will take it

I expected nothing tonight so thrilled with a point.

Terrific steal of a point. Worrying though that Keith Curle got his starting line-up wrong and his half-time substitutions were completely baffling - as bad as anything Hartley pulled.

Hopefully he will learn from this lucky escape. We've only got 7 or 8 decent players - how about just picking them all from the start?

A glimmer of. Hope. NSD
UTP.