Just a little bit of fun and something we chewed the fat over after fridays game. It was good to be back on the cold blustery terraces of the Vic, however i couldnt believe it was a pre season in July. This time last year i had shorts and T on come the first pre season.

I honestly think given the current crop and seeing the tactics and way we will probably setup in the NL next season that we would be fools not to think we have a chance at a play off position. Okay maybe not so much fools but lets be optimistic about the whole thing and expect some good results. I think a top 10 finish is reasonable and should we push for the playoffs then its anyones guess given your opponents at the time! We are starting to build something and the nucleus of the team is almost there. prediction for this season is at least top 10 with maybe just missing out on a play off place.

Raj will sell the club - at some point this season

Mani D will replace Umerah as our goal scoring hero and notch at least 18 goals.

Umerah will sign for the Gills.

Manzini becomes our answer to Modric - we fall in love with him and instantly becomes a fan fave only to be recognised for all his hard efforts and sold for top dollar to a L2 club whom we dislike (i,e a Wrexham or Stockport).

A surprise package from the Youth team makes a step up and again becomes a fan fave.

think that was it for the bold more modest predictions. ... awww and Dixon wins the Golden Glove for the season with most clean sheets!

Win the league n FA Trophy.

Who is this Manzini fella There's a couple of them playing in South Africa. And Mancini is still a trialist at Pools till we hear otherwise - one swallow doesn't make a summer and one decent performance in a friendly is no guarantee of anything - remember how it turned out with Ellis Taylor?

Settled side and more wins than defeats should allow a play off place.

Its promotion for me cas JA will be worth his weight in gold this season. I totally believe this man will deliver. I also predict bigger average crowds than any recent season. UTP

Like every season since the Flintstones, we will travel in hope.
The eternal optimist, the gullible, the hopeful, the we’ll see how it goes, the nowt ever changes, the watcher, the doubter, the whinger, the demander, the terminally pessimistic, the git……they’ll all still be on the terraces.

finish 9th missing out on the play offs because of a poor away record. early departures from both knock out competitions we will be involved in.

We now have more NatLge experience in the squad than ever before.
Maybe a little optimism is entitled, Many players are at a good age, Physically and mentally.

When we went down last time, you always subconsciously think you’ll do well…but watching that first home game against Dover brought me down to Earth with a nasty thud….. we know what to expect now.

Forgot this


I know theres no TW in division 5.
But we only 2 weeks away from the big Kick Off and this squad aint looking like a promotion challenging squad.

I think we might just sneak into the last playoff spot in the final week or two of the season and finally a long awaited trip and Poolie invasion of Wembley by lifting the rather large FA Trophy- which will be Raj's swansong! I believe by far and away our biggest asset is the Manager and he'll wheel and deal across the season to plug any gaps as and when - bit like DC did- only with a crowd literally behind him!

In JA we trust!

It's become boring now us loids wishing you luck on a day out at Wembley kev...zzzzzzzz

i trust him and have faith in him. however he is only a good football manager and not the man who could work miracles. we will still have players in the side we dread to see, but his first miracle needs to be every new signing coming off.

Mr Accrington,
Given JA's success at Macclesfield on getting them up the year before they went pop- a club in a far worse state than we are currently with a lot smaller fanbase, as well as the good work he more recently did at York - I believe that he is as near to a miracle worker as we are going to get and he is already in the building.
I'm realistic too, and recognise that there will be bumps in the road along the way but believe his level headed attitude and clear ability to manage in and around this level, can only stand us in good stead, providing he is backed appropriately by both the people above him and the vast majority of the fanbase.

being backed means backing with patiance as well once any bad run happens which it will. something thats increasingly not happening with owners and fans across the game. just wonder yet again how many managers will be forced out by christmas from clubs whose fans and owners cannot take any defeats or a bit of a dip in form. these will certainly not all hartleys, curles or lees by any means.

There's one other thing apart from John Askey's ability that gives me confidence that Pools should be in the play-off mix come May - four seasons in the NL followed by two in League 2.
Before we dropped out of the EFL the first time I half-believed the idea that there's not much difference in overall quality between League 2 and the EFL. Now that I've experienced both I know it's a myth.

Realistically, there's rarely more than 7 or 8 sides fighting it out for the 6 play-off places come the end of the season. The overall standard of the rest is way below League 2. If you look at Pools squad for 2017-18, there's no more 3 who would get into Askey's current squad. A 6 years younger Nicky Featherstone, Scott Loach and Liam Donnelly. After that, we had some truly average to awful players getting loads of league games. And Pools still managed to finish 15th!

Totally agree - Askey has that knowledge and experience of this league - he can work miracles and shown it in the past - he probably one of the best non league managers in the country at present and we have him - its not so much worrying about him doing badly and getting binned its us in the DC situation all over again - just wait till he has us flying high and a League club starts noticing. I really cant be dealing with the DC heartache again. Hopefully once the results come in - Raj or whoever owns the club has some concrete contract worth millions written in.

and exactly that FLying Hogans is bang on in his assessment - the 17/18 squad was absolutely woeful. Dont get me wrong i dont think we are about to do a Grimsby and head straight back up but i do think we will be up there as one of the hardest teams to beat back at the Vic and also a big team the smaller teams fear. This should give us the edge for a top 10 finish if not just creep into the playoffs.

JA recalled about being patience so i dont think we will see many more through the door - that is until we play some games and he sees what gaps need filling in and which players are still without a contract - it happened under DC reign where we brought in players just after the window shut - this either works in our favour or some using us as last chance saloon and we end up with shite.

going back to his promotion with macclesfield. anyone who still remembers them coming to the vic for a tuesday night game in their promotion season. they looked nothing special with pools holding onto a 1 nil lead. then the rest was history and they continued to play right up to the final whistle winning 2-1. after that game i kept expecting them to slip up but they never did. with that proper never say die attitude with a team and not 11 individuals on the pitch they showed anything was possible. JA could do that again with us.

Mr Acc fan - i was just about to google that very squad he took them up with and to see if i could find the games on youtube where we had in fact played them - i cant remember much from that season tbh (it will have been the birth of my first son so i would of had bugger all time to get to Pools).

interestingly enough - here is the team we started the first NL campaign off with.
just look at how many of those lads are now plying their trade at NLN level or lower - or not so at all. How many would seriously demand a starting place in this new JA side...
also i did not realise Liam Donnelly was without a club - hes went onto have a decent career and id have him back at pools for sure.

link for the team here:

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/hartlep ... on_id/2017

there will have been loan additions too but dear me its a very very poor squad !

Padraig Almond refused to stick around in the NL and left early doors for Newport. After that we were reliant on Jake Cassidy and Jonathan Franks for goals

Yeh and look where he is now. At least this time (unlike the DC era also) we look to start a NL campaign with 2/3 decent strikers who know this level well - and if by some miracle Umerah sticks around for the first few games we have another more than capable of firing them in at this level.

If i remember rightly that season they won the Lge, They won most of their games by the odd goal.

that will do me. no irratic stuff like 5 nil home defeats followed by a 2 nil away win. if a successful season needs to be done by grinding out results then bring it on. had enough of walking out of the vic and being asked how many we had lost by. be great t5o say we won 1 nil after boring the opposition and their fans to death.

lets hope we dont draw too many either

the promotion season for us was kept alive by alot of 1-0s if i remember rightly

saw a prediction youtube video from a young halifax town fan who thought we,d go straight back up and that was before we made our signings. the only downside was he expected sylla and umerah to be in our side along with flapper who he rated.