Some promising signs early days with players still gelling. Benn and Toppalaj are miles better than anything we had at full back last year, McNally especially looks good and gets forward at times too. Francis has bags of energy and is constantly looking for space. Thought Reid looked good in spells too, drops in like other "big" strikers but has a touch of class about him on the ball.

I think that improving a poor defence is easier than improving goal scoring.
Look at the 'goals for' for the top teams and contrast that with our failure to score from open play and it is clear that we need one or two goal scorers to maintain a push for a playoff spot.

I thought we played well, better football than the majority of last season. Stand outs for me were McNally, Francis and Cameron John, they all had excellent games. Sheron never stopped, a really good performance from him.
Great moment in the match when John Akinde who missed the penalty got subbed. He had to walk around the pitch and our supporters just ripped the piss out of him with applause and 'well dones', by the time he walked past us in the town end you could see he wanted the ground to swallow him up lol I've never seen a player look so embarrassed in a long time.

Great atmosphere at the Vic today. It feels like there's a belief building already that we're in for a good season. Really hope that turns out to be the case after 3 seasons of shite!
We totally dominated Braintree first half and should have been 2 or 3 up at the break. Cartwright had nothing to do. The biggest plus for me is how quickly Pools develop attacks - a massive improvement on last season. The new defence looks solid too.

Think we coasted a bit after the sending off/second goal and we're not good enough to do that. Even after 80 minutes Jermaine Francis was doing more running than Daly and Walker combined! He looks to be a terrific siging and was a very popular MoM. For a little bloke he really gets in the opposition's faces and they hate that - was the same at Yeovil last week.

Thought we took our foot off the gas after the 2nd goal and red card. Not pretty to watch but we played some really good stuff in patches against a pretty rough and organised side.

Cameron John was 1st class

Totally disagree, I was in the Town End and applauded Akinde as he walked past. It was nothing like 'taking the piss out of him' it was recognition for an experienced, seasoned pro who has visited the Vic many times with various clubs but may not be returning in the future. Akinde was smiling back at the fans not in embarrassment but in recognition of the applause. And he didn't actually miss the penalty, it was a smart save by Cartwright. In days gone by Akinde may well have been racially abused by an element of Pools fans but the warm applause that he received today serves to show how grown up Pools have become within the last 5-10 years.

It definitely seemed liked a ribbing from where I was stood, good natured but definitely a bit of piss taking going on.

Agree that it was a promising performance from the new look Pools side today but it must be regarded as a 'work in progress' . At 2-0 against 10 men we should have gone for the jugular and rattled in a few more goals whilst Braintree were on the back foot. As it was, we allowed Braintree back into the game courtesy of a couple of live wire subs whilst Pools subs had the opposite impact. Still think we need another decent striker and technically creative midfielder as attempts on target were few and far between despite Pools having ample possession. Most impressive were Cartwright, Francis, Reid and Benn. Much stronger sides than Braintree lie ahead so let's not get carried away by an admittedly welcome three points.

said on another thread the last 30 minutes spoiled a good game for me. on another day a better taken penalty and the way we decided to play could easily have seen us drop a couple of points. plenty of positives though before this all over the pitch.

was never a daly fan when he was with us before and walker could not have had a better surname.

does not really matter which one is right he chose to walk that way round the pitch rather than pass the handful of braintre fans where the distance was similar.

would not read too much into that. last two were efl games, the next was a local derby and last season southend brought a decent following unlike the normal southern numbers we expect like yesterday. not the most exciting sounding home game of the season on top of all that and oubt we,d have reached the 4,000 with the ones who did not renue.

Akinde will be a handful for defenders in this league for sure, his overall record is nearly a goal every 3 games in over 550 matches mostly at EFL level. The fact that he had only 1 opportunity yesterday is a positive imo, there's not many CBs will look forward to playing against him, he's a fecking beast!
He did get the piss ripped out of him by the fans in the MH but it was all good spirited stuff and a fair proportion of it was respectful of a decent player who's been around for a long time, I was quite glad to see him subbed as he was becoming more involved.

If we are an attraction on the pitch, like winning home matches the gates will increase. For me it's quite simple. I don't go or not go based on my opinion of who the the owner is, never have, never will. If other people want to stay away until we have a new owner that's their choice. What if the next owner is no better or even worse. Cutting your nose off to spite yer face. I dare bet though that if we start winning regularly the stay aways will come back and if we struggle the stay aways will increase in number. That as it has always been.

like in the past like some stayed away because of a certain player in the side or a manager they dislike or used it as an excuse to do so.

Yesterdays gate was definitely approx a thousand down on last year but to assume it was down to 1000 less St's being sold is totally wrong when you compare the number of Southend fans in attendance to Braintree's contribution.

Yesterday's gate was only slightly down on last year's fixture played at the Vic - 3516 or thereabouts with 18 away supporters. So talk of 1000 down is way off the mark.

Spot on but I was questioning the OP opinion on the difference between last year and this on opening home match and suggesting the reason was a downturn of approx 1000 ST holders. Your comparison is a much more realistic one.

Roughly the same size crowd as last season home fans.
And less STs this season will of produced higher gate cash.

Reckon the owner will be privately ecstatic at that.
But for me totally in his own hands to maintain them figures.

Or even improve with 2 quality loanies
Winger
Forward.

Or it could go tits up (this is Pools)

Still finely balanced for a few different scenarios.

I know Braintree are a bit Tinpot - however 18 fans for Saturday away game in August is embarrassing - it wasn't as if it was a wet Tuesday night in January.

Yes the fact these are some of the teams we are competing against should make fans expectations high-we should not be in this division size wise.

Think PTID may have been referring to 24/25 season's away fans, as I believe Braintree's "following" was announced as 27 by the PA announcer.

Yes I was, last seasons home match with Braintree also played in August brought in about 100 extra punters - mind we'd had a few extra matches of Sarrl-ball prior to it to put a few off I suppose.

A massive 27- I stand corrected
Percentage wise 50% more than I was led to believe!

braintree are a typical non league club happy to be at this level. seems non league thing not to go to away games even local derby ones because they do not have the feel ex league team fans have about them. even aldershot bring more to the vic than most southern clubs closer to us as they like us have not forgotton better days. we give most teams in this league more money than we get from them if not all of them.

Whats Brad Walker doing these days, on the treatment table ?

practising walking football coming off the bench.

My 1000 less season tickets was actually a question.

Also with it being the first match of the season, the crowd is usually higher, due to the excitement of the new season etc.
If we had sold more season tickets, I reckon the crowd on Saturday would have been a lot higher, hence my question do we think the crowd was lower due to less season tickets being sold? I think it was.

I was disappointed with the attendance on Saturday, not surprised, but I was thinking we would at least have 4000 of our own fans in the ground, especially first match of the season.

We will see what happens this coming Saturday....

I wonder if there were any people who were 50/50 about going but were then put off by the chairman's latest hissy fits.

Harvey Cartwright named in the NL Team of the Week. That's 2 from 2 (McNally last week).

Me.

Packed in having a season ticket last year - after forty plus years I simply got fed up of the bullsh*t.

Was going to attend the first match as the signings looked half decent - but, given that I'd have to endure West Ham fans on the journeys in both directions and then 'his' naming of certain individuals, I decided to give it a swerve. May focus on away games rather than pay into his coffers - yeah, I know this is damning on Grayson and the team but I've still not forgiven 'him' for the special post-Covid club shop discount after we paid for season tickets and saw nothing.

You were missed Mr Foot. Only me & 27 to share the Football Gums between !

And just a few seasons back we'd consume four or five bags of Sports Mixtures during the first half alone - and look at the drop in our numbers - from those who stopped attending when we dropped out of the league to most recent times when folk are finding that there is 'a life after Pools'. Sad. But will I make the effort this coming Saturday? Will you need to bring additional Victory Toffees? Do I want to hear Poolie 27 explain his latest knitting challenge?

best thing to do is to give it a try and force your mind to think that i am attending despite him and let that be known to others. if i,d have got a fiver from fans who said that last saturday it would have paid for my day and the next one i go to.