We were certainly left wanting in the Central Defence once the suspensions kicked in, and perhaps another experienced Striker-in-the-Tony-Lormor-mould (joke) might have helped.

you actually made a very pertinent point after the barnet game mr elves. you said we didnt have the strength in depth.

and i think thats true. we had a very big squad but a lot of it wasnt up to the job of filling in. we lost key players ( boland, sweeney, clark, barron, barker, monky ) at vital times and the replacements couldnt quite fill the gaps. we took 15 points from our last 10 games, 7 from the last 6, and one from the last 3.

there was no lack of effort but we seemed to be stumbling over the finish line. yesterday we had daz williams who had missed a chunk of the season, boland who was clearly not 100 per cent, sweeney who was playing thru the pain barrier, foley who was staring his first, first team game in ages, browny who is feeling the effects of his first full season, effy who has been struggling to go beyond an hour for months and porter who was starting a game for the first time this year and who had to be carried off after getting kicked up a height all game.

they all gave 110 per cent on a scorching hot day, but they were out on their feet second half and hanging on desperately for a point.

walsall of course brought in harper and benjamin on loan for the final push, and they scored priceless goals for them. but lets not forget pools moved heaven and earth to get daryll duffy in for the last 2 months of the season. he chose to go and score goals for swansea instead. if he hadnt who knows ????

its a cruel game. but you cant knock a bunch of lads that gave their all. hopefully there will be a good turnout on tuesday night and the fans will get a chance to thank their heroes in person and say their good-byes to those that are leaving in the summer.

- 8 minutes at Cardiff, 4 yesterday. But that's football

Errrr no that's Pools! Sadly!

Totally agree Jonny. How devastating would THAT scenario have been??

We were not 4 minutes away from anything on Saturday - A draw was not enough. A draw would of actually made things a lot worse in my opinion when news would of spread about Walsalls equaliser - which happened to be an awesome goal.......

I hope that's not true. When Westy left Pools he spoke a lot about his reasons for returning to the West Mids. It was a family decision, not a footballing one. He wanted to settle.

gossips are saying posh have offered Keates a 3 year deal, not sure about Westy.apparently it's been verbally agreed! with the extra money they have coming in from sponsorship I doubt we will be able to match what they will offer, Keates apparently turned down more money from Lincoln to come back to us for the same reason as Westy. I met Westy when my lads were mascots he's a really nice bloke.