Looking forward to it today as this is effectively a home game for me and the company is one of the Blyth’s main sponsors.

For anyone coming up, the social club attached to the ground is friendly and a good place for a pre match pint.

Updates on the score would be welcome Mr. N plz

0-0 half time

Cheers

Who are the trialists

Look on Twitter search Hartlepool United, Joe Ramage from Tha Mail tweeting.

0-0 draw. Jordan Cook played the full 45 second half.

Annoying Wallace and cooke both injured, we are definite 3-4 players short at the minute and that’s before Umerah goes

Typical friendly game with very little rytham or tempo due to all the changes. We didn't really test the keeper all game, few half chances. Trialists Da Silva, Grayson and Mancini, after all this hype about Mancini from last week I was quite looking forward to seeing him play, he was tidy enough but nothing special going off that 45 mins, Grayson was decent, can ping a good diagnol ball and Da Silva got in some good areas but no end product. It's difficult for trialists, think they often try too hard looking to impress. As for the rest, keepers look sound, forwards gave a lot of sloppy free kicks away and we still looks well short of any genuine pace. Think we need another centre half, right back, creative midfielder, a wide player and another forward.

Agree with the other comments.
Lacked any real creativity and looked poor up front.
Only a friendly etc etc but agree we need more quality additions if we are to worry the top end of the table this season.

I saw Graham Fenton's post match comments on YouTube about the game.
First thing I thought was Christ he's let himself go! Now me personally have never been a slim Jim but then I've never been a professional footballer!

Anyway he reckons we'll be challenging in the top 6- hope he's right, as I'd take that now!

Will be harder to score v Barnet n Gateshead.
Major improvement recruitment required urgently.
We cutting it fine then the new signings will need time ti gel.
Just not seeing this aledgedly promotion budget supposedly better than DCs.
UTP.

who actually started the game and who came on later.

Can't get too excited or concerned just yet, Askey himself says the players were leggy after their training camp in Scotland, and we fielded a different team each half.
All about the squad gelling just now and I'm sure we'll see another 3 or 4 new arrivals in the next couple of weeks.

Soooo predictable Kev. The win over Boro was "meaningless" because it was a friendly (and we won ) but this friendly confirms all your dire predictions because we didn't win

And again, you are the only person on here who has ever talked about a "promotion budget." You're the one doing the alleging. Doh!

the only friendly games that are important are the ones where the results fit fans previous agendas.

Budget quote is from your Messiah.
But sure you twist your words to suit your sarcasm.

Will the Cricket start today sir.

The OS has a match report and names the players who played both halfs

If you mean Raj Singh - no- it's not. He's made 2 statements since relegation and they're both still on the OS. Have a look yourself and see if you can find the words "promotion budget" - cause nobody else can.

While your at it, see if you can find a post from me that remotely gives the impression that I'm in the current chairman's fan club (not sure one exists, but if it does I'm definitely not a member )

We kept a clean sheet, that's got to be something positive, but we are still miles short, think we're in for a shock early doors if we don't bring some quality in.

Bigger budget than DCs promotion season equates to PB.
Lets av a timeout replying if u capable of that. Getting boring now.

I hope u wrong Billy. But rarely are.

think goals will come in games as even on the short highlights it showed chances were made. its still at the defence that i,m worried about. 2 games and 2 big defensive mix ups where we got away with the one at blyth. y teams will make us pay for these in league games where they,ll latch on to these and defend the lead with the usual amount of shithouse play we know.

Making predictions for the season based on a friendly where we gave 20 players 45 mins is ridiculous imo. Especially when we've just come off the back of a win against a team that made the Championship play offs last season.
Neither result means jack shit for our chances in the NL. Pre season is all about fitness, trying players and systems, building team spirit, seeing where strengths and weaknesses are, signing new players to strengthen those weaknesses, and establishing our best squad for the first game of the season.
Let's see where we are after 5 or 6 league games before writing the team and the season off eh?

Writing the team off at this stage for some people is just a Pavlovian response.

I remember last season where i watched us tear apart a very good Sunderland team for half an hour or so - and also watching Hastie run rings around sunday league players at Marske - the optimism for the Jock experiment was very high - we all thought we had unearthed some form of south american Gems in our quest for cheap Jock exiles. How very very poor all that turned out and learnt me a valuable lesson once again to never trust in a pre season what ever the cost ! Pretty sure we had a dire pre season under DC too and then went on to promotion.

The lads where knackered and the conditions wouldnt of helped tired legs either on a sodden pitch - Blyth was a good test for me and a goo fixture to get in as they finished strongly in their campaign last season and wont be too far off some of the bottom half style teams we play next season ! for me i can see us gathering alot of draws - we need another front man who can come on and give something different.

the MF needs a creative spark which i think we missed in both Cooke and Wallace being missing - not our strongest team out there on Saturday by any means - given also id like to see us with another powerful CB in there too

anyways onto Redcar tomorrow night where no doubt we will put 6 past them and back to winning the league

No, we had a good pre-season with fantastic players like Ofusu, Bloomfield and Parkhouse scoring loads of goals. Not forgetting Luke Williams scoring 4 in a game at Brandon. Only managed a draw up at Blyth Spartans...

It’s too early to predict anything at the moment. 10 games in to the new season we should have a better idea. Last season I predicted mid table (stabilisation) would be a good income. Anything above that will be a bonus. Askey has plenty of experience in this league so am hopeful he will get us back in a few seasons.

plus we have no clue whatsoever who most other clubs have recruited or have lost. why is it promotion or bust with fans across the country nowadays instead of thinking of it being a bonus after a good season. at least in the premier league there are many clubs who will not win anything and never in a relegation battle but turn up in their thousands every week just to support their side.

Goin for 7 2 win
UTP.