Friday July 27th 730pm Kick off. One question Who's Noble playing for ????

More importantly Bob, when will we know which of our new signings to decide is shite, not up to the job and shouldn't get a chance to play before being subjected to abuse?

Cracking post.

And how many times do we have to watch the new signings play before we can declare them a 'bargain' or a future premier league star?? as happens every season.

If they're free they're a bargain, unless they're on £5k or more a week, which everyone assumes is the case if a player is half decent or came from a 'bigger' club.

Bang on.

I think twenty minutes of a friendly is usually long enough to make fair assessment of any player. Anybody who takes longer than that just isn't fully equipped for the cut and thrust of proper football banter.

People on this site love to play the "better fan" with posts like these. How about we just see how things pan out rather than already before pre-season has started attempting to create a bit of conflic / divide.

I wouldn't say this was provoking conflict, just a bit of harmless craic.

How is it playing "better fan" to have a laugh about the fact that some people really are daft enough to jump to conclusions about players before giving them a chance? There will be abuse shouted at new signings during that match unless we get an early goal and then go on to beat Sunderland comfortably.

fuck off

Maybe me not getting it then, just seems people love to do it on here at times.

Clashes with the Olympic Opening Ceremony, so that may well knock the attendance down further than it would normally be for a friendly. Thought the club might have had an eye on that, unless there was no possible other way to avoid it.

I can't see many people giving a toss about the olympic opening ceremony, I certainly don't anyway

It clashes with my neices 18th Birthday so if she decides to have a party then I won't be able to go, which would be a shame.

well that means you arent a proper fan. So there.

Did you mean my comment that you responded to with 'Cracking post' or another one?

I wasn't trying to create conflict or any divide simply making a tongue in cheek post knowing what has happened in previous pre-season games, and predicting what some will do this year.

A friendly against Sunderland will be much better than watching some kids dance and some fireworks in a billion £ stadium hundreds of miles away.

If the opening ceremony is anything like the London bit at the Beijing Olympics it'll be a cringing embarrassment.

Apologies I misinterpreted it.

Every new signing is shite, even the ones who haven't signed yet.

And they are all on 5k a week

Sorry, this is 5 star numptyness by the club. If they think that Pools and Sunderland fans are all one-eye football fans who don't watch anyother sport then they are so wrong. Whether you like the olympics or not you can't get away from the fact the single most massive gaterhering of sporting people is happening in our capital city and that the eyes of the world will be on it. To schedule anything at that time is plain stupid.

I planned in having a huge shit at 7:45 that evening too, whose running our club these days?

Or should I say circus! Useless pools

Ludicrously early kick off

Did the club check with ripper before organising this kick off time?

Aye but, Mr Banana, is a pre-season friendly for the benefit of the fans or the team?? Yes, it'd be nice to get some revenue from it but it's not really the point, is it?? If they cover the cost of putting it on, they'll be happy enough. Anything else is a bonus.

A match in July??? It might be warm, Football is a winter sport do the idiots at out club really think people want to watch in those temperatures? I bet they have loads of fucking Bovril in as well the numpties.

A serious point here, are people genuinely criticising the club for organising this on the same night as some people will walking around a stadium with some flags, a torch will be lit, and some fireworks will get set off in London.... really?? Seriously?? Anyone who'd prefer to watch an opening ceremony on TV than attend a match at the Vic should be barred out for life.

Also do these nuggets thinks it's easy to get a full strength Premiership side to agree to a pre season friendly?? Maybe it was the only date offered? If you're saying avoid clashes with the Olympics it's on for the next two weeks, and Sunderland are in Asia before that.

There will be some moaning that there arnt any student prices

Football or ceremony, hmm thats a toughie!

Are you one of them hermaphradite jobbies and the female side took over the penis to suggest we would stay in when our team is playing at home, or stay in with a bottle of rose and a pack of maltesers and watch some prancing numpties and a firework show

I made a sarcastic comment about some of our fans expectation levels, but I think that Mr Banana was serious.

Olympic opening ceremony or Pools in a home friendly against any team in the world? I'll take pools thanks.

If the opening ceremony is good or bad we will be shown the highlights over and over for the following month anyway. If it clashed with something that actually mattered to people in the North East then I'd see his point but as far as I know nobody wins a medal from an opening ceremony and we aren't all going to be suddenly well off cos Sebastian Coe has ordered some good sparklers, I bet there's loads of that thoroughly original street dancing that everyones trying now too. If they want to make it authentic they should give everyone in the stadium £10 to live on and then send in a loads of hoodies to steal their phones at knife point before leading them out into East London on a looting spree.

Only 1 persons had a go at pools, no one else, everyone else is just taking the mick

Thanks for pointing that out, it could have gone over my head otherwise

(Yes my post was aimed at that person)

Happy to help

i'm well hacked off, i'm already booked to come up to Hartlepool that weekend albeit I come up the saturday morning

OK. Maybe OTT on my part but it's just another example of how football lives in a bubble. It should be an opportunity to get a good pre-season gate. Are we playing Newcastle when the men's 100m final's on?

100 metres my arse, feckin over in 9.72 seconds, christ on a bike, I can`t unzip me pants and unload the boxer short beast in that time

So what if we are?

Shall we never play another footy match again incase it clashes with another sport?

Just had a quick look at the olympic programme and there's a gap between the 65kg women's judo and the men's 3rd round matches in the handball. I think we can play then

Hold on! The Helsinki Draughts Open is on then.

It's Sunderland's first pre season game in the country, less than twenty miles from home. They'll sell as many tickets as we give them which will probably be the Rink End and Millhouse. 5,000-6,000 at least I reckon.

Well I'm not taking the Mick. I think the Olympic organization committee are out of their fucking tiny minds.

They really should have prepared for this. Now Bovril is back on the menu, the opening ceremony is just a minor event. I hear Seb Coe will be giving updates between each country getting on the track.

We should petition the Olympic Committee to have the biggest sporting event of the summer beamed to the big screens in the Olympic Stadium so that those who have been forced there on corporate tickets don't miss out.

I've emailed Steve Cram - he's devestated. He's told Lord Coe to cancel the whole thing.