Walsall weren't up to much and that referee was sh!t.

What? This is a different game?

It was déjà vu today... Just like last week!!

Referee had another shocking game!!

Dreadful game, I fell asleep on my feet at one point I'm sure.

Defensively sound, none existant in attack.

Yes it was a very poor game, I said to my mate after 10 minutes that it would finish 0-0. It shows how a bit of consistency this season could have put us higher up the league. Carlisle, Notts County & Stevenage all going for the final play off place & none of them have scored against us at home this season, 2 of them thrashed & none of them were anything other than average. Lets hope we finish strongly this season & have a good go for the play offs next season!!!

Referee was an utter disgrace, as were the linesmen to be fair.

Last 2 games we played with no striker and both games scored 0 goals. Say everything.

Another poor game in a season of poor games, one of the most boring season of home games in my 39 years of watching pools. We are seriously devoid of any quality and desperately need two wingers for next season. As with a lot of games lately at least we never lost like we would of in the past and a point is a point.

I thought the way Humps sold that gypo disco permed hair a dummy was funny as fook and then he got done again a few minutes later

No threat up-front, but to suggest it the worst game for yrs is a bit harsh. Theres been shed loads worse than that !!!!

give it a rest man we have a few players missing and its know were near the dross we watched at home under wadsworth

Poor game all round...especially the ref

It was no where near as bad as the clueless slow long ball shite that was played under Wadsworth earlier in the season but we obviously lacked a spark in the final third.

I agree that young players should be given a chance but I'm sure that will happen more and more after todays blank....

'Heard plenty of people saying on the way out they wouldn't be coming on Tuesday night if he picks the same team'

Not fans then, so fook em !!!!!

thought we had a few chances ? or and we were never going to score a hat full of goals against the second best defence in the lge were we ?

would rather have proper fans than people whinging me like !!

surely it would be better to have Hassan or Snaith in the team, with the hunger and desire to prove themselves rather than someone at the end of their career, out of position, just doing a job.

We desperately need pace & movement in the team, surely there are some decent wingers/attackers in the youth team with pace?

Oh and where was Browny?

it was a game of moodswings for me. started off absolutely dreadfully, mostly due to stevenage taking it in turns to hoof the ball as far as it possible in the air. pools got back in the game and probably were the only side looking to play football on the deck. yeah we were lacking up top (duh!!!), but we should know our limitations at the moment with injuries i was reasonably happy with the point as they are exactly the sort of team we'd have been battered into submission against in recent years.

the ref was obviously more used to officiating at rugby games, as countless pushes, digs and wrestling from the stevenage side went unpunished. the deliberate headbutt on sweeney was a disgrace, but summed up the piss weak game that the linesmen had.

i couldn't possibly watch them week in week out - my 6 year old said that they were the antithesis of everything that he loves about the beautiful game.

So can you tell me what you consider to be a "proper fan" ???????????????

We only had 5 in the middle when they had the ball from what I could see. Once we had the ball Monkhouse and Sweeney were too far up the pitch to be classed as midfield IMO.

But I wholeheartedly agree it was a poor game from an attacking perspective. I don't know why Cooper took Baldwin off. I assumed, when the sub was made, that Sweeney would drop back and Poole would play as wing forward in the 4-3-3 (whilst in possession). But if anything Poole simply replaced him which I couldn't understand at all given we needed some spark in the centre of the forward line.

Maybe it would be worth giving young Hassan a game on Tuesday? Oldham aren't up to much, they've just shipped 3 goals to Rochdale and you'd like to think he'd be capable of making the opposition defence think twice about what they have to do.

Agreed.

jesus, let's not bother going down this fucking tedious road again. get a sense of perspective today of all days.

'I'm not going tuesday if he picks the same team....'

Then welcome to the board

Yes I agree about blooding young talent but honestly to play them today we would have been absolutely battered. They where stronger than most of our senior pros so to put them in today would have totally destroyed there confidence I think.

Nc obviously can't bring in loan players so has to use what he's got and with our injuries doesn't make it any easier but I wouldn't have played the young uns today.

So what is wrong with asking someone what he means by a proper fan on St Patrick's day. It's no different to any other day as far as I'm concerned.
I could of course be missing something having once again travelled a two hundred mile round trip to watch my team as a fan. I've now had me tea and sat down to read the bunker and found that Mr Bresslaw has decided that he is in charge of deciding who is a proper fan. I would therefore like to see where I stand in the hierarchy of a proper fan.
You do come across as a self appointed pompous twat Mr Aido.

Muamba of Bolton had to be revived on pitch at spurs mate stable now

Either would suit me but, yes, Snaith's recent returns are impressive. I carelessly overlooked that.

I thought the seagulls put on a good aerobatic display today, a bloke in front of me dropped his guts and made my pasty reappear in my throat and they were the only 2 things I recall

Ain't it simple? Clearly we are going neither up nor down so Coops is experimenting for the last few games of the season. Come May the dross will be disposed of and a new dawn will rise in August.

I have just read the thread on Muamba and it is indeed a shock and I hope he makes a full recovery.
However my response to a statement made by another poster does not deserve the response made by Mr Aido.
I too am considering not going on Tuesday. Tuesday's trip will cost me approx £50 in petrol, overnight accomodation, food and drink etc etc, so I'm looking at upwards of £150. After following Pools since 1952, home and away, at a considerable cost, I'm damned if I'm going to be told to F""" off by anybody on this board or any other for "whinging".
Hope that clarifies my position.
Oh and I agree with Chip..........today's game was dire.

I don`t get playing Humps up front at home, it`s as if we didn`t want to win, just play for a draw, most people around me in town end were checking scores on phones for most of the game

I`m taking my knitting with me on tues and if Humps is up front again i`m making spectacle covers and ear muffs

From the line up I thought this is going to be a non event.

By the way we played it felt like one of those end of season games where you play another comfortable mid table club and the only thing that matters to the older players is not getting hurt before their holidays, while the younger ones really try to impress the boss for next year.

If that last bit is true Paul Murray must be 16.

Paul Murray absolute class again poty by a mile

if you were to the scoreboard side of the town end just up from the 2nd barrier then yes it was me and i was lucky to last till the final whistle but when i got home i had a lovely shit

So what is wrong with asking someone what he means by a proper fan on St Patrick's day. It's no different to any other day as far as I'm concerned.
I could of course be missing something having once again travelled a two hundred mile round trip to watch my team as a fan. I've now had me tea and sat down to read the bunker and found that Mr Bresslaw has decided that he is in charge of deciding who is a proper fan. I would therefore like to see where I stand in the hierarchy of a proper fan.
You do come across as a self appointed pompous twat Mr Aido.[/quote]

you're a fucking ignorant idiot, and your opinion of me matters about as much as a fart on a windy day.

you're a fucking ignorant idiot, and your opinion of me matters about as much as a fart on a windy day.[/quote]
Likewise pompous twat.

Agree, he has vision and a presence that the others do not, if only he was younger

I know who you are and it wasn`t you, the anal emissions of this guy would have melted the barrier

Derwent. You're situation is different to the majority. And I have. Of self-appointed myself anything !!!!

Some so called fans wants foooking 5 star football!!
Not every game is going to packed entertainment wise, you take the rough with the smooth and with the injuries we have at the moment I'm pretty happy with a point today.
We desperately need some pace and quality especially in midfield, Cooper has stated this after only his first few games but until he has the chance to bring in his players we could be looking at a few more of these games till the end of the season.
Stevenage were a solid team, nothing special but you can see why they are riding so high. They came to do the same job they did on us in the cup, thankfully the defence had a good game and we got the point we deserved.
(So called fans) Referring to the chaps chip mentioned earlier.
For 6 bar a game what do they fooooking want!!!

are u sir mick ??? we would hav went down under wadsworth this season cause we could not defend ? we now look pretty solid FACT!! we just need someone to score bloody goals and we wont be far away ? stop been so bloody negative mr chipp its one game !!

It's not just a case of 'fook em'. Anyone with any idea or ambition for Pools to maintain the current league standing or improve it knows that we aren't going to do that if we lose fans.

And today we set up like the away team, it was better than hoof ball under Wadsworth but a couple of end to end entertaining games would be nice before the season ends...

I very much doubt MW would have taken us down but the hoofball and lack of energy was frustrating. Mr Chip makes a great point about Baldwin who got the plaudits last week but was shifted position this week...

Humphreys has been a great servent but when most people see he is leading the line up front they want to cry their eyes out. The positives are that we are trying to play a bit of football but the lack of action in the final third is massively frustrating. When will Luke James going to be fit?

Totally agree. Today's team selections were just baffling.

Bang on Chip! I wasn't one of those who clamoured for the return of Cooper, like the bloke and he gave us some good times when last here but I had reservations about him even then, of course in those days our aspirations were a little higher than survival, I used to moan because we were in the play off zone rather than the automatic places. Maybe he was using reverse psychology.

Cooper was honest when he said during the week that the play off's are beyond us due to injuries, a true and brave statement, personally I think we didn't have a cat in hells chance of the play off's with a full strength team. I just hope the players dont see that as a signal to switch off and slide down the table. I would like to see us finish as high as possible to send out a message of intent for next season, but history suggests we are more likely to finish in the bottom six. I believe in playing your strongest team in every game not throwing youngsters in because the season is assumed over, IMO the season is never over , finish as high as you can, if a youngster is good enough to play so be it but dont play them for the sake of it. This would also be a great opportunity to get a player on loan with a view to signing him next season if he was any good. Some people seem to think this is a waste of money, I disagree. With details of the new season ticket offer imminent we need to finish the season on a high note. Lets get nasty, lets beat Sheff U at home, lets scupper Charlton's title party on the last game of the season. I really hope the players arent in holiday mode and we limp past the finishing line.

What Cooper could do was motivate, we now need to see this in action, starting Tuesday.

Correction! Meant maybe he was using reverse psychology when he said we couldnt make play offs

I was surprised and disappointed by the team selection too.

The only logical reason I could see for moving Baldwin was that Cooper thought that we needed him in the midfield because the lads who played there last week would be overpowered by the Stevenage physical approach, and maybe also that he wanted Collins' big lumbering presence at the back to deal with a similar threat from their forward line.

As for Humphreys. Jesus wept. The bloke is STILL one of my favourite ever Pools players for performances in the past but howay Richie man, give it up before you spoil everything eh. Watching him yesterday he offered us nowt, and every time that he tried to control the ball on his chest I thought he must be wearing Gazza'a comedy rubber tits under his shirt as the ball bounced so far off him.

Man of the match? Probably Murray for a reasonable display and that just about sums up the team performance, i.e. reasonable was the best on show and some didn't even achieve those heights.

Nevermind, it's another point towards mathematical safety and hopefully another point towards Cooper being more confident in chucking a few more of the young lads in and planning for next season.

With respect Ripper you are talking absolute bobbins about Humphreys performance yesterday. You must have had the pre conceived idea that he was going to 'offer us nothing' upon his selection. His link up play and hold up play was sound all game, he kept the ball and passed to a blue and white shirt. His work rate was excellent winning us possession more than once purely through sheer graft. The problem was in the first half when he was up front on his own he was dropping off deep with nobody beyond him, as was said he offers no goal threat which sort of defeats the object of a forward. In a front two he massively out performed his strike partner Monkhouse, who how he played 90 minutes was beyond me. He was utterly woeful and why the hell anyone thinks he can play up front is also beyond me, he can't he is not a forward. Play him on the left hand side or don't play him at all. Why do we have a situation were Poole is playing up wide left and Monkhouse is stinking the place out up front is baffling. One instance summed Monkhouse up yesterday, late on he picked the ball up in the inside left channel, totally ignoring the fact Horwood had made a great 50 yard run unopposed down the line to float a piss weak half arsed cross straight into the keepers hands. Crap.

But we'll single out Humphreys again.

Also I can't imagine Stevenage are involved in many classics playing like that, especially when being refereed by a bloke he is oblivious to pulling, pushing and fouling all game. Late challenges, one on Liddle that he let go first half nearly put him out injured again, double handed shoves, and making no attempt to win a header just holding the Pools player were fine all game according the goon with the whistle. We actually had a spell in the first half were we got it down and played some really nice football for about 20 minutes, and were without doubt the only team who tried to play any football.

We have our obvious limitations and failings, but I don't think we played that badly yesterday, and I imagine they are involved in quite a few games like that. I don't really see what Cooper is expected to do with exactly the same squad of players to be honest.

Humphreys provided no goal threat whatsoever, unless you count the shot he had that was no where near the goal. His link up play was all done when he dropped deep which gave us a spare man in the midfield anyway - he simply doesn't do enoguh in the important areas...