Do you have any idea what the highest league posistion that Pools have occupied is? it's just something that cropped up in the chat room......

Oh and when and where was the highest posistion achieved?

joint top

you were told in there!

That's what I thought but that doesn't tell me what year it was and who we beat to get there does it?

Top of the Third Divison North 1956-1957. Glad to be of help.

Oh and no specific date 'cos we were top quite a bit that season. Except when it mattered.

October 10th 1992 - after beating Bolton 2-1 away.

A game I missed as I was in a scrapyard in Easington getting an exhaust put on my mates car that took most of day so with not enough time to get there I went and treat myself to a burgundy pair of adidas gazelles.

Then about 10 weeks later we never scored for what seemed like 8 seasons

was this the time when andy saville scored at blackpool while i was taking a pee

Didn't Bruce Rioch complain because the pools players were singing in the changing room after the match, what a plank. Played at Burnden Park, a proper ground! Dont remember to much about the game, I went there twice, once in the side terracing and once in the corner terracing (can someone please design me an 'anorak' smilie)

something of a reccurring theme these days!!!!!

1956/57. Remember it was 2 points a win in those days.

We were top after the very first game of the season on goal average having beat Chesterfield 5-1.
A draw in the second game lost us top spot and we had to wait till 10th September to go top again (clear by 1 point), beating Southport 5-2.
We extended the GAP to 3 points on 24th September after beating the Trannies 5-1.
We stayed top until 24th November when defeat by Barrow pushed us to 2nd.
We regained top spot on 19th January by beating Stockport 4-1 (two weeks after THAT game against a team in red), and stayed top till 23rd Feb 1957 when we had a two point lead having just beat Crewe 2-0. That's 34 matches into the season.

We were top (real top, not joint top) for a total of 19 weeks that season.
This I believe trumps being second on goal difference for one week in 1992.

Behind the goal, one half terrace the other a massive supermarket!!!

I went to the game we could have went top at The Hawthorns on a Tuesday night. I reckon we could just claim that top spot in the next ten days

indeed - i ws just referring to living memory of most....

Third Division North was the bottom league though wasn't it? Equivalent to Division Four?

If so, I would reckon being joint top of the old Third Division to be a higher position.

I remember that game at West Brom too, the linesman conned us!

The top team in D3N was promoted to D2 (second tier), so top of D3N was just as good as top of CCL1.

Yes there was a suspected imbalance in the respective standards of the North and South divisions, which is why they made the new country-wide divisions 4-up 4-down (to redress any imbalance more quickly).

But as a measure of the quality of the TOP team in the division rather than of the division as a whole, it was Derby County that finally overtook Pools to promotion. In Div 3 (South) that season the promoted team was Ipswich on the same points as 2nd placed Torquay. So I think the two were comparable. If there had been any justice at the time we'd have played Torquay for the third team to go up.

Anyway let's put that debate to sleep for ever by being clear top this season after ten games or more - or even 24th in the Championship next season!

spot on - Saturday showed the likes of Thornton and Melligan are not good enough to play for us when we have that four.

Cr*p!

Robson, Strachan, Bullock, Llewellyn for me.

"shivers run down back of spine"

buries head in hands, remembering that it was actually so embarrassing for our team to be so bad

at that time we were driving down to Gilingham with Pools scarf in the back window, and a bus full of Wolves fans were pointing and laughing at us as we went past (pointing and laughing is something I enjoy doing myself as Mad John will testify), but to be honest they were well within their rights. I bet they couldn't believe anybody actually got out of bed and travelled anywhere at all to follow that lot we called a team back then!!!!

McGovern Parry Gill Goad Somers.

It has it's moments......

the thing about this current one is, they are operating at the highest level the club has ever been at - and they are damn good these lads we have playing for us right now.

Yeah, but......we aren't getting 20+............etc etc etc.

I think we'll do alright this year. I really really do.

Nah, our defence is too leaky and we've not got the quality up front to score enough goals.

The midfield are all benefiting from all playing together last season so have had time to gel, it also helps that 3 of the 4 were Wilson signings and he has formed the midfield to be exactly how he wanted.

We still need to tweak things upfront and in defence but 60% of the back 5 are brand new and 50% of the attack is. McCunnie, Antwi and Budtz have shown they can be excellent players and I think if the latter two can cut out any errors then we'll also have a solid defence. The front two are gaining a greater understanding and hopefully Richie will start scoring and we'll have a potent strikeforce to compliment a strong defence and awesome midfield.

Don't you think this 'gel' thing is a bit of management speak that has become just a little bit of an excuse when you throw some players together and they simply don't speak to each other??

I don't remember Nelse and Clark letting ten goals in while they 'gelled?' They're just good players.

Isn't training for 'gelling??' Pre-season??

You might have a point there Kev.

When new players arrive at the club they all say what a good bunch of lads are here and that they all get on with each other. Obviously when you get on with people off the pitch, they will also enjoy playing together as a team etc etc

I thought that it was short for jealous

hair is for gelling.
Those who have it.

Nah, a strikeforce and central defence pairing has to gel in order to work properly IMO. You have to be able to understand each other's play and be able to think what the other player is doing before they have done it. At times this season, such as Port Vale, you could tell Nelse and Antwi hadn't gelled and we looked shaky defensively. You'll get some of it from training but 90 minutes week-in, week-out is where the real gelling will happen and I'm not overly concerned that we've looked shaky at the back at times and weak upfront on occasions so far this season