A seasonal debate anybody improve on this squad?
Martin Hodge

Keith Nobbs Gary Strodder Chris Westwood Rob McKinnon

Brian Honour Mark Tinkler Jan Ove Pederson Paul Dalton

Joel Porter Paul Baker

Subs:

Scott Flinders
Darren Knowles
John Mc Phail
Anthony Sweeney
Joe Allon

For a second i thought you had Flinders ahead of Dimi and Poole and Harper (if including loans)

The best Pools team since 1981 including nobody from 1981 or the next 5 or 6 years

I stopped reading at Gary Strodder and Chris Westwood.

Then I started again.

Then I saw that both Allon and Boyd were not in the starting XI despite giving us the 2 highest season totals in the last 30 years.


I know that Allon's a Leeds fan or summat and he hates Pools and Boyd drinks a bottle of vodka instead of Lucozade sport before the game but c'mon!!! At the very least if you're going to mix them up you'd have Boyd and Baker or Porter and Allon?

For the record, here's the team I'd have had:

Dimi
Nobbs Nelson McGuckin McKinnon
Honour Emerson Pederson Dalton
Boyd Porter

Very close between Boyd/Porter and Baker/Allon but there y'go.

Manager: Cooper

I know mine's since 1990ish but I was only 8 then so can't really comment much before that!

I stopped reading when you had your best defensive partnership as Nelse and Gucky. Then started reading again and realised that front 6 is a very good selection. Then I stopped reading to post this reply.

I was going for the team with most "in" or "on" suffixes in names.

I stopped typing before I put Robs...

No1 is Brian Horne
No2 is Brian Horne
No3 is Brian Horne
No4 is Brian Horne
No5 is Brian Horne
No6 is Brian Horne
No7 is Brian Horne
No8 is Brian Horne
No9 is Brian Horne
No10 is Brian Horne
No11 is Brian Horne

All together now....we all live in a Brian Horne world a Brian Horne world

It's surprising how many selections Boydie gets considering he has only ever performed well (and they were very well) in about 40% of his performances for the club. The rest have been very unspectacular.

I'd also strongly argue that Gordon Watson was far better than all of the strikers mentioned (especially Baker and Allon) and would only be edged by Joel Porter.

I think if Martin Scott hadn't broken Boydy we'd have had either another couple of seasons at 25+ goals or a much larger transfer fee for him. In that season and at the end of the season before though he was at the top of his game and better than any player I've seen at Pools.

Watson would be on my bench, can't break either of those partnerships up!

Wot no Humphreys? Ah no, I'm waiting for the sister thread.

He got team of the century last week.

If Humphreys had left half way through his Pools career there'd be plenty of people rightly selecting him for this team as he was superb and technically excellent.

so five years ago? we have nothing to argue about then.

FFS Mr I 'your last you'd say on the matter' has lasted two whole days

Here's something controversial, Ritchie is a far superior player than Brian Honour ever was. A far better footballer. Nothing against Brian loved him as a Pools player, but massively over rated in hindsight.

Dimi

Ryan Cross Mcphail Gilchrist McKinnon

Brown Tinkler Emerson Paul Smith

Watson Porter

Subs

Flinders
Boyd
Allon
Nelson
Dalton
Baker
Humphreys

PJ you are infuriating. I can't let anyone devalue Brian Honour (and you do- Ritchie was/is a magnificent player but he hasn't been better than Brian in any way).

But it had been niggling me that no-one had included Ryan Cross and Paul Smith. Both are excellent shouts and I would include both.

Brian not only shone like a diamond in bad sides, he was the best player in the promotion side.
Then he was the best player in the side that tried to adjust to the level in div 3. Pools played an outstanding Crystal Palace side that were in the top 5 of div 1 at the time. Brian was the best player on the pitch by some margin. He drove Carlton Palmer to distraction when he was an England international. His commitment and intensity in every every game he played has been matched in my 28 seasons watching Pools only by Darren Knowles. If you add to that intensity that he was as good a crosser of the ball as Paul Smith and chipped in with often spectacular goals then for me you have the first name on the team sheet for a since 1981 X1 and probably the only one that shouldn't even really be debated.

Seroiusly are you on a windup? I can name at least 10 players who are/were better than ritchie fooking humpheries.

Ryan Cross!

Hahahahahaha!

Paul Smith before Dalton?

Hahahahaha!

Humphreys better than Honour?!

Jesus PJ, have you had a few?!

I've actually just soiled myself

Better than Brian Honour? do me a favour, thats complete and utter bollocks and as for over rated... Honour isn't in the same league as your pin up boy.

Putting aside my personal feelings, regarding Humphreys I thought he was stealing a place during the Scott season. I believe that the record run is a sham because for an awful lot of the games he simply did not deserve to be on the pitch and its got worse from there.

Time for a big big clear out and I hope Cooper starts the slow players; Collins, Humphreys and Murray are all past their sell by dates by some margin. We have better in the reserves and you can be sure that any of the youth team can at least move faster than an asthmatic snail.

Correct

1 steve harper
2 micky barron
3 rob mckinnon
4 chris westwood
5 micky nelson
6 brian honour
7 jan ove pedersen
8 tommy miller
9 joe allon
10 adam boyd
11 michael brown

subs
dimi
paul baker
keith houchen
graeme lee
paul dalton
stig olaf laarsen...

Ryan Cross was an excellent full back. You obviously can't remember him as a player if you find his selection amusing.

Smith for half a season was unbelievable, that's what I picked him on. I remember him knocking crosses over the day we beat Swansea 7-1 and casually walking back to the half way line as another was converted, great player. As good as Paul Dalton? No probably not no, but it was my team of players I enjoyed watching and in that period Smith was a joy to watch. These sort of teams are objective, and personal. I didn't see any set time limit are a minimum amount of games to qualify. Yeah I probably had, had a few at the time it's Christmas But I could do a team tomorrow and it would be different. 100 Poolies could do one and it would be different.

As for Honour/Humphreys I was being slightly provocative, yes. Mainly in reaction to the amount of shite Humphreys gets on here, in the thread about the team yesterday their was almost bonk on like excitement from some posters (that weren't even at the game) that he was playing and they could begin to take the piss. He has been a very good player, he was superb in his early days at club and is still capable of doing a job. His selection was wrong yesterday in the position he played but he still ended up being our one of better outfield players, not that is saying much on yesterdays performance. Remember how good was during the Turner/Newell promotion season, scoring 11 from midfield. some absolute belters as well. A technically superior footballer to Brian Honour without a doubt. I'm not trying to in any way devalue Brian's Pools career, he was a great servant and a good player. He was brilliant in the 91 promotion run in. But he was over rated, for example another winger Andy Monkhouse who's played 150 less games for the club and scored more goals already. He suffered a lot of injuries (not his fault but he did) and was superb in spells more than being always a brilliant player. People love him, and have great memories of him scoring wonderful goals, rightly so, but that doesn't tell the story of his whole career. Surely I'm allowed to say that?