I dont know about any of 'yous lot' but every year at this time I always begin to feel a bit glum that the footy season is about to end and I will have to make do without watching Pools and other footy on the box.

This year though, I feel competely different, I cant wait for the season to finish. Even when we were at the bottom of the old 4th division I dreaded the mid season break.

It must have been one hell of a shiity season for me to feel like this! The one plus might be that whereas normally the summer break seems to drag on and on (possibly due to eagerness/optimism for the coming season) I reckon I will go into next season with no expectations whatsoever regardless of what division we find oursleves in. The break may not drag on quite as much.

Did you have any expectations for this season? I couldn't see anything to be optimistic about last August.

no, i'm quite looking forward to the Leeds game and possibly going to the Bristol game for my 1st away game of the season if anything is riding on it. I feel metally drained though keeping all you negative miserable bastards in check

I will be desperate for the preseason to come round as well as all the dodgy rumours about new signings (player with an 'S' in his name anybody?)

And i honestly believe that no matter what division we will be in we might just have an exciting pre-season

Yes. I can't keep doing all this going to away matches or home matches for that matter, coming home depressed, hearing fans celebrate malarachy. It's not good for me.

i thought we looked good for the playoffs after the colchester game

I wish it would end today... I'd love it to end today in fact.. It would be great to have nothing to worry about apart from who are not going to sign this closed season!

Is there much else on in the summer apart from cricket? Not much of a crcket fan tbh

F1, Golf, U21's , A couple of England World Cup Qualifiers, oh and not forgetting the 20/20 World Cup.. (I know its cricket but not as we know it) after that its roll on the end of July...

I forgot to mention Wimbledon maybe Murrary could be first Englishman to win it since Fred Perry the man who invented Muttleys favourite t-shirt....

That comment was made with ones tongue firmly in ones cheek....

We'd had so many seasons where we never wanted it to end that it's a big come down to see the team limping slowly to hoped-for survival..

If we'd actually showed some spirit I'd still be excited about the remaining games. When we went down under Stepho at least the players were fighting tooth and nail right up to the last minute, and we could even dream of beating Port Vale by the 6 goals or whatever was required to stay up.

Talking about close season, that got me thinking , we went through a very long period where we never had a full close season with the manager already installed, either because we sacked the incumbent and were waiting for a new appointment or else we had loads of those nuisancy play-off things in the way. It all made for interesting close seasons, speculation, etc.

In the last two seasons, however, we've had a full three months to prepare, yet it seems in those same two seasons we've been the least prepared we've ever been.
What's the deal?

Yeah i can't wait for the season to finish now, and i'd love to see a new Management team at Pools A.S.A.P and a lot of new signings for next season, and of course us POMS to thump the Aussie's in the Ashe's series. Then the alarm clock goes off and i realise it was just a dream(Oh if only eh ?)

I'm looking forward to playing Leeds, but I hope that with the problems we have that we don't get crushed at home. I'm also looking forward to going to Bristol Rovers as I want to see what the atmosphere will be like on the last day even though we the most we'll have to play for might just be for pride and to beat last year's finish.

BUT...

I'm also looking forward to the end of the season so we can finish, have a nice long summer break, come back refreshed, with a new manager and new players, a totally fresh start, turn over a new, thatnking Turner and West for their efforts, and then start the new season with a renewed sense of hope and optimism.

I hope you are right!