Can see D.S. playing " The Hunter " centre half and Sloggett back in the team. I also see him resting young Stephenson and playing the vastly experienced Freeman who looked real quality. He said Doddsy & Charman touch in go for next Saturday. I agree with what D.S. said about the players digging in to get a vital point and I quote : " We saw the real people that we've now got here and that's a nice warm fuzzy feeling and I think we have some very very special people " .
I have to agree about the players work rate and mentality been top draw that will bring huge rewards going forward. We have a really good solid team and when Sloggett returns we will see more goals and more attacks.

Some questions from someone who hasnt see Pools live this season:

Do we need Hunter in midfield? If we do, is Sass-Davies is not trusted yet? I can see why Manni O might not play given his last minute balls up last week.

Yes we need Hunter in midfield. I would play
Dixon
Freeman
Fergy
Parkes
Sass Davies
Hunter
Sheron
Mancini
Campbell
Grey
Mani D

Really need Sloggett on the bench to give us some sort of attacking option.

Cheers for the reply. So you rate Sass-Davies? What are his attributes? Is he good in the air or very good? Is he quick enough or quick? Does he tackle well? Dont mean to bombard, just very interested. To date no one has said much about him. Will he simply "do a job" or is he potential successor to Waterfall as he reaches the twilight?

Probably take about 20min to get around SD. Hes a fooking big lad, 30 odd games in the efl.

Surprised if Mancini starts after yesterday, Sarll will likely want to manage him given his injuries…though the size of our squad may force his hand

I think He may play freeman, with Stephenson in front of him in the charman role

We really should be dominating and beating Tamworth

You would have thought so but Sutton couldn’t manage it. They drew 1-1 at Tamworth. It took a goal in injury time by Sutton to grab a 1-1

Although Hunter did well covering at CB his running and energy were missed in the middle of the park imo. Much rather keep him and Sherron as the midfield enforcers and play a recognised CB.
That was a good lesson for Stephenson but I don't think he's ready for regular NL yet let alone 2 games in 3 days.

I appreciate Mancini is a favourite with many after is performances at the beginning of last season but since coming back from injury he has got nowhere near that form. He has had a full pre season and neither in the friendlies or the two matches to date has he done anything to deserve a start. Problem is there is nobody else.

Sarll style is not suited to Mancini at all, hopefully as the season progresses our style evolves a little to make more use of him

Anyway score line will be 0-3 to the mighty Pools. ManiD 2 Campbell super free kick 1. UTP

Sass-Davies big strong lad good in the air in defence good in the air on set pieces. He is not particularly fast more like Parksy for pace. He is a decent man marker and tackler but still a little bit nieve like Stephenson but a real prospect. Not sure I would start a game with him just yet until he improves a bit more. And for that reason I would play " The Hunter " on Tuesday night. I would put Sloggett in from the off and go forward and attack afterall it's supposedly one of the 4 weakest teams in this league. Also I don't think we need both Hunter & Sheron in the middle unless we going to pinch the ball and break but that doesn't make sense to me given Sloggett is avaliable and we playing Tamworth not Barnet. if sloggett plays just a hour that should be long enough to get a couple of goals start. Then bring on Sass-Davies and put Hunter back in midfield.

Sloggett won’t be on the bench more than likely so no way he starts

Put sass-Davies jn, keep it like for like where we can so not changing too much at once

I think Sloggett will be avaliable

Dixon;

Stevo, BSD, Parkes, Fergie;

Hunter, Sheron;

Mancini;

Grey, Mani D, Campbell

Is what I think D.S. will go with, however wouldn’t be adverse to seeing the 442 diamond last played at South Shields in pre-season with Grey supporting Mani D and Campbell in behind the two. Mani D and Grey play their best football alongside each other.

With only two clear days between matches and playing a team of part-timers, we should have too much in the tank for Tamworth. So far this season fitness cannot be faulted and this is the sort of game when it should pay real dividends.
Hopefully we can get a two or more goal lead to avoid a nail biting endgame!

Mancini was excellent in the friendly up at South Shields and didn't feature in the 3 home friendlies after that, so I'm not sure what you're talking about? He had a quiet game yesterday but as Loyal said, the way the team was set up didn't suit his game - after Waterfall was sent off he was basically filling in for Hunter as a defensive midfielder. It was a decent test of his fitness though - the match lasted 105 minutes including added time so he was on the pitch for near enough 90 minutes.

Davies isn't exactly a teen rookie, he's 24 and played plenty of games. It just makes sense to start him as that's what he was brought in for, to cover waterfall and Parkes.

I honestly thought he was 20 years old so that does make a big difference

Stephenson will move up for charman is my guess with Mancini back on bench

Not going to underrate Tamworth for being part time.
Remember these cup n trophy exits.
Wudent be to disappointed If we only took anutha 4 points by 5:10pm on Saturday.

Steady progress then hopefully a few wins in a row as we progress.
UTP.

if not then move him on and bring another attacking midfielder in with some flair. do we actually need two defensive midfielders playing in home games either.

that would have been ideal if charman was playing on the right instead of the left. fergy could actually move further forward with parkes moving over to the left. a lot depends on what tamworth have to offer themselves and the type of players they have. could be a team of giants or small quick lads which could affect who we play in the back 4.

I haven't saw alot of Sass Davies he started against Forest B and did okay.

As Leggie says he's big and strong, not slow but not quick either. He doesn't appear to be technically gifted or anything but has plenty of experience for a 24 year old, he's a good old fashioned center half.

The way we play, closing opposition down and forcing them to go direct (in both games no team has been walking through us or getting easy crosses in every 5 min like last season), it suits Sass Davies.

Reading the reports on Tamworth they had less than 30% possession vs York and just over 40% vs Sutton.

They are big and strong and direct. This is the perfect game for Sass Davies he can dominate both boxes airially, whilst his weaknesses are unlikely to be exposed too badly.

Tamworth are a propa none league team - they dont look to play the neat passing game. DS will have them sussed out and id imagine we see the same team that more a less finished saturday start tomorrow. Freeman in at RB and Davies in at CB. Be a major boost for us if Sloggett is available - dont shoot me down but if we are going for the out playing them type of game and using the Mancini to the best of his ability now hes a little fitter we might just see Featherstone controlling the center of the park with either Hunter or Sheron doing the work for him. We have options but its probably a little early in the season to start trying new formations etc - we seen how that went down under Askey and Curle before. Think we will grind another 1-0 out.

on Tuesday night I wouldn't mind seeing Mani and Joe as a front two, Campbell in the hole and Featherstone coming into midfield alongside Hunter and Sheron to bridge the gap between defence and attack with his passing ability.

Bloody plastic pitch!

Hunter and Sheron are box to box midfielders, against Yeovil they did the defensive work and both had attempts on target from within the opposition box with Hunter scoring.

We seemed to be a bit more defensive at home vs Southend as they're a better side, the sending off then stopped any chance of either Hunter or Sheron being box to box.

Agree with the point about Featherstone, he may be the key in linking the play up in the middle. It isn't quite flowing yet, but I'm sure it will.

Do the good football managers on the Bunker still think k we only have to turn up to win.

Probably, And some think we can sign expensive players who can kill what budget there is.

surely we can just turn up and bring a point back though. no games are ever easy or straight forward but some are less so.

forgot about the bloody plaggy pitch - another injury added to the sick bench then come end of game tomorrow

Swap grey over

Got to create chances to win games, we have done extremely well to get 4 points so far on the scraps the forwards have had. Surely against Tamworth though we will create more wont we?

can see them being more of the standard of yeovil by being champions of there league last season with obvious improvements of there squads. more we play in their half more of a chance of creating more.

Expect they will be worse than yeovil given relative size of the clubs and the fact they are part time still

Watch out for their time wasting goalkeeper. He did it at Darlo last season, he was doing it again V York on Saturday.

He goes down with "cramp" then while he's getting "treatment" the rest of the team get a break and a team talk.

I think this is called cheating!

Renamed to tactics

we are shithouses now too - no doubt we will do a fair bit of it. Especially if we go 1-0 up and need to wind the clock down.

If we don’t win tomo it will be down to us playing shite…partly driven by having a squad with as much depth as the shallow end of a toddler’s inflatable paddling pool

And if we do win, by that simple logic then the squad depth is adequate is it? Big squad equals win, small squad lose!

Another reason not to play Mancini injury wise, plastic pitches should be banned at this level

Whats up with Charman now? Very good player but always picking up injuries!!

He got clattered into on Saturday

Think his foot took a knock or a twist

Should be impossible not to.

Ya did warn us.

He was proper f**king clattered, did well to try and play on but probably made things worse?
Did sit on the bench rather than go to dressing room when he went off which might mean it'd not too bad?
Shame because he looked bright and up for it.

Hes going to get a lot more of that, Started the season brightly.