Be nice on Saturday if the crowd got behind the team by obviously encouraging them but also having a good natured go at the opposition players, the art of the piss take is much under valued and getting on their backs in a non malicious way livens things up.

It's a strange atmosphere at the Vic these days. Crowds are holding up surprisingly well but it's so long since Pools took a home game by the scruff of the neck and won easily that we're all pretty much waiting for the defence to gift the opposition a goal or two. They're as regular as clockwork with that.

The Vic has always been merciless towards home players who look like they're going through the motions and can't be arsed but most can see that's not the issue - there's a difference between not trying and just not being good enough.

Could not agree more.

there is an art going through a game being annonymous by getting into positions where passes are not on for them plus finding reasons to block and not put tackles in. thing is at the vic the fans are not stupid.

Oops I meant opposition players when I wrote ‘their players’…My mistake

Cant fault the players effort like said above they just aint good enough.
This continued recruitment policy of replacing shit with shit and hopeing for a better outcome dosent work as the last 29 months results show.
But some will put it down to bad luck shit refs n injuries.
Only football though soon be the beer garden season.
Every cloud n shit like that.

if we had signed a really good central defender and had a bit more strength in depth i still think we could have been going neck to neck with chesterfield if the luck and injuries had not happened or to different players. same as relegation last season could also have been avoided by more speculation that has cost the club in the long run without that happening.

By the title of this thread- thought it might have been a prize for the last fella who booked on to the Oxford fans mini bus!

Wonder how many will make the journey to Hartlepool and the sub arctic tundra in the North, the Polar Bears may put them off.

The mighty Oxford City will create chew down Church Street with police at every street opening and outside every ale house. Or a commendable 15 will huddle together under the Rink End Roof and think thank fuck we don't have to come up here again and how did we beat this lot 5-2?

Time will tell Kevin.
Lets see how someone who can manage individuals gets on.

I suspect they are more in danger of drowning than being eaten by Polar Bears or freezing their gonads off.

That's a fair point Ozzy
It might be worth the dirty dozen chartering a small boat- along the Thames and up the coast. Lots of people do it nowadays and nobody ever gets stopped - or turned back.

You would hope for their own sakes that they'd be bright enough, not to do a New Year fancy dress, wearing strings of onions and berets whilst chomping on baguettes - as we have form and it'd would be an absolute bloodbath down on the Block Sands!

lol

Oxford were pure shit like i said during the week.
The Lennie effect will get a sterner test at Fylde on Tuesday.
Maybe a continued run of Mancini Magic can get us to Wembley in FA Trophy.
Its that hope thing again that dosent seem to go away.

I was listened to the first half on Tees, the crow sounded very subdued, second half I was in the land of nod so I have no idea how that was.

I think 1st half we were all thinking here we go again, some tidy approach play, much the better team, but no end product and when will their goal come.
2nd half saw a bit of relief at 2 up but why do don't know why we sat so deep? Tiredness or tactics? Dodgy strategy if the latter.
Bottom line is that if we'd had even a half decent striker on the pitch we'd have romped stand the crowd would have gone wild, probably.

spot on. first half we would still be shitting ourselves when somehow they managed to get a corner and expecting the worst. cannot change fans thoughts and attitudes overnight after what we have all seen this season. do think some of the lads were knackered at the final whistle which crawford mentioned about him in his interview, thats what we need from players, going off like that after they had given everything and not looking sharp in the warm down.

What is it with you and rubbishing players? Joe Grey has 3 goals from his last 4 games. His worked his nuts off yesterday, his shot that hit the crossbar early on was a great effort from a difficult angle and he nipped in for a poacher's goal. Yes, he could have done better in 1 on 1 situations but he's still only 20 and improving all the time. I reckon he qualifies as "half decent."

the main thing is that he did score and put a real shift in. no guarentee that any of our 3 strikers would have scored anyway and that includes manny D with similar chances. omerah might have puzzled them more by falling over twice, doing a backward roll on his run to goal. wreh would just not have been anyway in sight as you need to be in a position to miss them.

Spot on, Gray was tireless.

Just saying what I saw, cant criticise his effort, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who was very disappointed in his end product yesterday. He had 3 one on ones where he turned back rather than going for goal. The one where he was at least 5 yards clear but took so long to get ready to shoot the defender managed to get a block in was a joke. He's obviously not a natural finisher nor instinctive striker, some great balls played into the box but he wasnt anywhere near getting on the end of them as good strikers do.
So yes he scored a tap in but he wasted numerous chances which we'd all be rueing if they'd nicked a point.
It's not a matter of rubbishing players, its my assessment of what I saw yesterday, he may well play a blinder Tuesday but that's another day. I'll bet even Joe himself was thinking he should have done better, in fact it'd be a worry if he was satisfied with his performance yesterday. And by the way huff and puff and effort don't win games, putting your chances away is what matters, especiallybwhen we are so defensively fragile.

A very well expressed opinion, if I may say so.

Of course he will think he should have scored more, I said so myself on the matchday thread. That doesn't change the fact that he was one of our best playes yesterday.

Personally I'm thankful to have been spared the sight of Chris Wreh or Jake Hastie leading the line - or for that matte Josh Umerah in his current poor form. Do you think any of them would have kept 'huffing and puffing' as you like to call it for the full 90 minutes?

Grey is more than half decent.
Technically skilled and always gives his all.
I think he can go on to have a good future in the game, and his 3 year deal was a sensible investment by us and well deserved.
But having watched him over a number of years now imo he will never be a "prolific" goalscorer.
That's not his forte.
He often lacks that composure you need in front of goal, and tends to snatch at chances or dither.
Yesterday was just another example of that.
Imo you can't coach that into a player and he either has it or he doesn't.

You might be right, but plenty of strikers become more reliable at hitting the onion bag as they get older. Mani D for one. He was 26 and had played 200 games before getting into double figures for a season - last year at Halifax.

He was born with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiZDaRxRV24

Poetry in motion was our Joel.

Ok he faltered and fluffed his chances a couple of times, but no striker scores all their chances and the more regularly he plays, the more confident he’ll become in these situations.