Its the same at any football ground. I would never do it myself but its frustrating for the 4th home league game we look like a pack of strangers playing together for the first time.
Remember its the supporters who help to pay their wages, and we need as many as them on board at the moment critical or not.

The team are just going to have to roll their sleeves up and entertain the fans. The fans pay their money we deserve a lot more than we've been getting upto now.
If they play well they'll get the acclaim, if they don't then what do they expect!!

I think this perfectly highlights the problem with the team. We cant create much playing through the midfield, dont get me wrong they can play keep ball for a bit accross the back but they rarely go anywhere. We dont have a player to unlock defences. Mcsweeney sees plenty of the ball but has no end product. Sweeney runs a lot but does not do anything with the ball. We need a playmaker and until it happend I reckon we will struggle in the home games.

The players realise that they are not good enough to play their way through the opposition defence so resort to long balls (which we dont like to see unless of course it the last minute and we need a goal).

Im not a fan of the manager but he is not a million miles away from getting it right. We need a playmaker. I just hope the cash that we were going to use for Healey has not been used up on Bjornnson as we could really do with finding an alternate playmaker with it.

Lets give CT until the end of October. If we are still hovering around midtable then its hard to argue against him being manager even if our home form continues to be shocking. The main concern for IOR will obviously be that our gates will continue to plummet if we lose the majority of our home games

Gah, copycat

The problem is this...

A lot of the fans who were there yesterday will have also seen us outplay Burnley in the League Cup. We played good, attractive, fast paced, one-touch football.

For the majority of the match yesterday, we hoofed the ball onto Duberry's head for him to easily deal with.

Can't blame the fans for being a bit restless when we ALL know what we are capable of doing, especially against a side like Wycombe who could well get relegated this season.

Booing at this stage is idiocy though. Especially when James Brown was taken off in an effort to drag ourselves back into the game. There are a few fans who should really know better!

We got a point but again we failed to beat opne of the poorer sides at our own ground.

Correct Tree but why?

Shite tactics and shit midfield. Sweeney is not doing enough, if we had a fit Boland in there then I reckon we would be flying right at the top. There is no one in centre midfield to make space, pick up the ball from the back and play a good pass TO FEET to our front men. We need it badly.

Blame the manager?

That's exactly what we said yesterday.

apparently turner was seething on the touchline, several times shouting "Get it on the floor". It's up to the players to play it right.

We DESPERATELY need something different in midfield though. the wide men are ok but the middle 2 so far whether it has been Jones & Sweeney or Fredriksen & Sweeney haven't got it right.


Maybe we should try Fredriksen & Jones for a few games, see how that works????

I would still like a holding midfielder type brought in.

It's easy to see that. My point is that the fans expect to see this sort of display. In my opinion, we made it too easy for them yesterday, as we did for Norwich and Charlton before this game.

When we did get it down and play it on the floor yesterday, I thought we looked good and they were under pressure from it. That statement also applies to the Norwich and Charlton games (albeit briefly). They certainly were not under any pressure with the long punts up to their centre halfs. Wycombe actually went for the win right up until the final whistle. Fair play to them for that.

They earned their point but games like this could see us in trouble once again if they are repeated like they were in the preivous 2 seasons.

It may be worth trying as we have no alternative right now. I would be concerned that we would get over-run in the middle though. We need pace in there. If Ritchie is to play in the middle then we need a pacey player alongside him. Maybe Sweeney would play better alongside Ritchie, who knows.

I think Ritchie in the middle would only be a short term option though. We need a holding player in there with a bit of a gob on them.

Maybe we should inquire about a loan from Ipswich of Healey. He isn't getting in their 18 at the moment. Loans are still available aren't they? We can think about buying him in January if he does a good job. As long as the asking price isn't half a million as I think was previously rumoured.

Also it would add to the Irish feel good factor in the changing room.

F*** Healey. He chose ipswich. Im sure there must be other alternatives.

Everyone is allowed to make a mistake. If you had a job offer, and then what seemed to be a better offer suddenly comes along, would you not also do what Healey did? I'm sure I would do, a footballers career isn't a long one, and they have to think about what is best for themselves first.

He hasnt set the world alight down there. I just reckon there must be better alternatives. I think it looks a bit desperate to go for such a player on loan after he switched allegiances at the last minute. Sod him

It's a different standard of football though isn't it. I agree that we should be looking for alternatives, but Turner obviously thought he could do a job for us, and at least 2 of our players know how he plays.

I'm a bit confused me.

I'm hearing we're playing hoofball and then the midfield is getting the blame?? How can they be at fault if the ball is flying over their heads?? Are we goal-hanging and playing three pots in??

If I read 'we need a holding midfielder/playmaker' one more time I'm going to vomit into a PM and send it to the author. There's only two ways to the opposition goal, through the middle and round the sides.

Guess what, experts, where 'x' is an unknown quantity and a spurt is a drip under pressure; the oppositions job is to stop you scoring. Some succeed better than others.

Shhh......c'mere...............that's why we're so good away from home....

I think some Pools fans forget that there is a second team on the pitch, when we are trying to win at home.

They hit the long balls because the midfield cant make space and come for the ball. If we pass to Sweeney he just gets barged off the ball or loses it every time and Jones isnt usually available. Therefore the defenders have no option but to hit it long. We need someone in the middle with intelligence to make the space and mkake the passes to strikers feet. Sadly the person who does that the best for us looks to be finished.

I dont blame him at all, Anyone would do the same thing. Not sure why it aint worked for him at Ipswich but there are plenty of players who dont perform under Keanes management. End of the day the Cork fans thought he was a class act and said Behan was shit. On that basis then he should be pretty good at this level.

Though with Keane being the dick that he is then he wont let him out on loan even if he has no plans for him.

I get really annoyed when people compare our matches against better opposition to bog standard league matches. We look better because the opposition are playing their game and letting us play ours, the better teams are confident of their own ability and really aren't going to be second fiddle to us. The result being that both teams can play to their strengths and neither side is trying to stifle the others play. Bog standard product of a visit from a team lower down the division is to hold onto the point they came with and perform a Rourkes Drift defence to keep it, the two are just not comparable.

Oh. Soz n' tha'. I'll have to remember for next time! I did say that it is what the majority of people expect to see. If this wasn't the case, then we'd have large crowds happy to watch the team regardless. The attendance figures speak for themselves unfortunately.

The point I was trying to make was that we played (or do play) football against these teams, yet abandon it against teams who make it difficult in the way the Wycombe did on Saturday. We could have got the ball down and had a go on Saturday but didn't for most of the game

I f you want to see a decent game of football, you need to have two teams who are gonna play 'football'... not one team who are outt to disrupt and spoil and bring you down to their level. It sounds logical to rise above it and play your own game, but we all know it's not quite that simple.

yes, it's not that simple. I totally agree.

What was simple was the job that their defence had on Saturday with long ball after long ball being pumped towards them for 85% of the game.

Charlton looked like a good football team. I reckon they'd have opened up that defence on Saturday had it been them playing, as would any good football team. We are a good football team when we get it down and play. We yield the best results from it. Floating fans can see this too which is why we're seeing a drop in attendances, which was the original point I made.

I know that the style of football is a major reason why people are staying away. I used to stand with a group of lads in the Town End (around 15-20) who were in regular attendance a few years back. Out of that group, 2 remain. (myself included)

.... the boring years were mostly under Scotty and Wilson, I'm waiting to see how this pans out... and if players are ignoring the managers request to get it on the deck, the manager needs to 're-educate' them or drop them.

I don't sit a million miles away from the dugout and Turner was screaming at the players to get the ball down so that would appear to be the case.

As much as I think he's much improved from last season, Collins is a major culprit here. I, like most people on here think a midfielder who can pick out the forwards and settle things down is needed for the home games. I can't comment on the away games as I haven't got to any so far this season!

We have lots of youthful running in midfield and flamboyance on the wings, we need a wise head and we need a bit of steel to stiffen it, it's all over the place, rudderless, naive and leaderless and it wants sorting.

Enter Richie Humphreys