I know people are going to harp on about it being meaningless friendlies, however some things do still stand out.

Formation.....doesn't suit our players. James wasted out wide..was way too big a gap between Harewood and other attackers. Compton wasted on right...always had to cut in on left foot....he should be on left of the 3/4. Parnaby looks lost in holding role..always looks to play the ball backwards to flinders or defence, inviting pressure from opposition. Austin shaky at centre half and Holden awful both in defence and attack. Few tweaks def needed.

Greening very good I thought...worth a go.

Walker..bit of a concern..looks well off pace tonight and last week. Lost the ball too often.

Bates...superb signing.

Last season, in and around the Rotherham match in the cup we played some outstanding football.....we arguably have better players now in some areas???that has to be our aim.

For me..team should be

Flinders
Duck worth Parnaby bates Austin
Franks Greening walker Compton
James Harewood

However that is with players we have... We have a scarily thin squad...we need the likes of burgess, Williams etc in ASAP!!

Err, sorry Greening hasn't signed yet - and presumably won't unless Cooper can a) reach agreement with his agent re salary etc and b) convince him that additional signings are indeed on their way. Your assessment of Walkers form is particularly worrying - he was the same at the back end of last season and maybe just doesn't want to be here. Maybe best to cash in now and bring in a quality midfielder - with legs.

Walker was poor and looks injured/unfit. Greening was no great shakes but was playing in a team at short notice for first time so should improve. Nice to know Aussie can play Centre Half but should be resisted unless in an emergency. Holden is a weak link, but decent enough lad to have on the bench.

I don't think well get away with playing 5/4/2. Both duck and worth won't get a game at the back

Whoever was there tonight will tell you that we were shite.

If you think that not really creating a goal scoring chance against a Boro defence that won't start the season is decent, then your laughing. Yes its a pre-season game but the players looked beat before they even started. Woodgate, Ayala, Williams and Omeruo weren't even playing.

The formation we played was ridiculous. Luke James and Harewood both ended up on the left wing in a team that looked to boot the ball forward rather than keep it and pass it. Compared to last season we look light on numbers.

Harewood is not the answer.

Seriously Boynie can't you find a Spennymoor forum to T roll?

I don't think we will have our squad finalized until the end of August in terms of loanees etc

Currently, at least number wise it looks weaker than the one that dropped like a stone at the end of last year but there is plenty of time to strengthen so not worth panicking yet

I hope we sign someone to atleast challenge what looks like Harewood's all but secured striker position.

I'm yet to see quite what he offers the team other than comedic value.

I don't rate him at all, I was hoping that with a full pre season under his belt he would be a lot better than last season but that hasn't occurred. Still just strolls around up front a lot of the time

It's good that you've started the season with a clean slate and are prepared to give all the players a fair crack of the whip before writing the campaign off.

I agree anyone not performing at what is the business end of the season, July 30th, wants scattering.

PJ, are you Ken Hodcroft? Or one of the players mams?

You're very optimistic, considering the situation we are in.

Nice too see he's made this judgement in meaningless friendlies, no doubt he'll be posting crap about him all season now.

I'm not optimistic at all I haven't made a single prediction either way. I'm keen to see a few players come in.

I just find someone writing a player off because they thought he'd be better after a full pre season before he's even had a fucking full pre season quite amusing and it sort of sums up the mentality of a chunk of our support.

I think people are too obsessed with the premiership, FIFA, Footy man etc.. and think we should be bringing in 25 players a season. Cooper has stated he is still in the market for more players yet people still moan, our squad is fairly thin but i'd rather Cooper bide his time taking a good look at these trialist instead of wasting wages which we have done in the past with Power, Luscombe etc..

I'm want to know what 'situation' we are in as well!?

The League table is looking grim, I mean Accrington are top FFS on that budget, sort it out Cooper.

You're a lot more optimistic than I am. Replying to all the pessimists/realists (however you see them) telling them everything may turn out hunky dory.

The situation being only having 16 outfield first team players on the books, 4 of whom have less than 10 appearances between them, with 1 week to go until the season starts.

Things may turn out hunky dory, and Cooper may have bought 4 players before next week, but chances are, he won't. And in this current situation, it doesn't look like there is much to be optimistic about.

I think even PJ would agree the current team would more than likely go down.

If Cooper had come out and said no more signings then yes id be worrying.

But there will be signings whether permenant or loans and that is 100% guaranteed.

I'm not sure we'd go down, we've not exactly lost any match winners and signed two decent footballers. The squad is thin though so as things stand expectation of much more than lower to mid table would be an ask. As we seen last season it's a tight competitive division were teams not much worse than you are in trouble and teams not much better than you are in play off contention. Three or Four decent additions and we're looking in not bad shape.

I think that has to be four minimum. I agree 100% that there isn't much difference between success and failure in this League and there was a point last February when there was a chance of making the play offs. Then we got a few injuries, Williams went back to the Boro and that was Pools gubbed.

A few of the more experienced guys still in the squad (Franks, Compton) are basically impact players who didn't exactly shine when the going got tough. And we had a problem all season scoring enough goals. Shame none of the trialists have been non-league strikers; surely there's a few out there who are worth a look?

Daniel Johnson could well be worth a look as looks like all gone quiet with Boro and Cardiff.

It was comptons first year in a new town, he's not a fuckin robot, he moved up here, split with his lass and struggled to settle a little, to say he had didn't shine when the going got tough is a little unfair, I thought he started well, was crossing in great balls that no one was getting on the end of, he got a red card, missed a few games, a few niggly injuries, missed a few games, then struggled to get back to his form in the autumn.

Not sure why some people get on his back and say he's a fringe player, I think there is a proper player in there, he just needs games in his right position, he's a winger, old school white on his boots style, he needs to be played there and we'll get the best of him.

It's not fifa, it's not footy manager, sometimes players can take time to settle.

Never played either mate but fair enough to say Compton deserves the benefit of the doubt. The manager obviously thinks so too.

The pace/invention you mention in the middle is what's needed most. Going by midfielders mentioned or on trial, it could be that Cooper doesn't see this.

Was talking to a work colleague who has played non league for a number of years and alongside Daniel Johnson quite a lot. Says he is unreal and has strength like a young Rooney. I mentioned we released him and I said I can only presume cos of mayb attitude etc? He didn't believe that for one minute and said he don't even drink.

I'd love to see us go Into non league for the likes of Johnson, take a look at that Knight guy oh and bring in Burgess again.

Ps do we still have scouts? It very much feels like we're only signing or looking at players who Cooper has played with. No bad thing in most circumstances.

Too much facial hair on display in the team on Wednesday night for me, made us look unbalanced.
Bates, Parnaby and Greening all have full on beards, made it very difficult trying to pick out who was playing the shitest.

I had that problem as well. Beards,tans,hair dye, all a bit too much for me. I remember when players came back from pre season with beer bellys.

Beards are so in right now, don't be a square

For once in your life, make a prediction, I dare you!

One quality player, in midfield could set it all off, the majority of the 90/91 team were struggling in 88/89 89/90. I just don't think we can afford/attract that sort of player. In 90/91 we had a pro active chairman and a good manager, that made the difference, under different circumstances the same side could of got relegated.

The problem could be Cooper himself, or the fact he has got no hands on support from our Lord Lucan style chairman.

Honestly how many clubs are run like Pools?

Time will tell, and it could be quite sudden.

We'll lose every game until March, when a freak wave will engulf the ground consuming it and all of it's occupants.

Yours, a realist.

I heard Monkhouse was released because Cooper wasn't happy with his beard.
Double standards if you ask me.

Ask yourself how many clubs aren't run like 'Pools

Pro active Chairman, FFS, you couldn't make it up, could you?, I bet Cyril's wife thought more or less the same about the man

The first paragraph of this post especially makes excellent sense

PJ- Bottom six but probably not bottom two

Certainly agree with paragraphs 2 and 3. That is my hope, hence my original comment about one quality midfielder being the vital ingredient. The defensive performances in the first half v both SAFC/Boro have been impressive, hopefully that equates to 90 mins v inferior lge 2 opposition. I still think though even against lge 2 opposition it is difficult to defend for 90 mins. A team needs their midfield to be creating chances to take the weight of the defence. It was noticeable during both games that Harewood and James were getting back and helping out the defence. Maybe that's why the defence looks solid and maybe again that's why we are not creating/scoring at the other end. There is something not right but then again not a lot wrong, just seem to be missing that vital cog, some pace, leadership,aggression in central midfield. We need a Mark Tinkler type signing in there, a player on the up in his mid 20s. Without this certainly it looks like a season of lots of draws or narrow defeats, with a few narrow wins thrown in.

That's set us up for a nice opening day 4-0 win at Stevenage then, which knowing football wouldn't surprise me.

Why is that particular insight directed at me?

The last few years has seen us become a team set up to defend and hope for a bit of luck at the other end.
We have now released attack minded players like Monkhouse, Poole and Sweeney and not replaced them (yet).
I hope Cooper has got something up his sleeve because it wasn't great watching Luke James track back to help out in defence.

I think you'll find on most occasions against Premiership and Championship opposition that a League a Two side will see less of the ball and believe or not the forwards will have to track back. Way too much is being derived from two pre season kick about's to the point in future some of you should be banned from attending pre season friendlies.

As I said in another thread two years ago so saw us beat Sunderland 1-0 with a goal from our new cartwheel signing (a bloke called Howard) then play lovely stuff in 2-2 with Boro. I was encouraged by those two games.

We won one game before Christmas.


They mean fuck all and give no indication to how we will perform in the League.

You can say friendlies mean fuck all until you are blue in the face but at the end of the day you are still watching a game of football, all be it not a fully committed one.
No one is getting carried away but when your team can't string 2 or 3 passes together with a bit of forward momentum it's natural to wonder what Cooper has got lined up.

Hopefully Williams and Burgess on loan for a season for starters.

Nobody is getting carried away.... are you sure? I must have imagined some of the shite I've been reading on here then.

I just hope they get the floodlights working.

That will be Pools' fault as well?

Maybe Morrisons using up too much juice

Can I just say that I haven't got a fooking clue how Pools will do this season. Mind you I only base my assessment on there having been wholesale changes to the squad, me not knowing what formation the manager has in mind and which players he's likely to pick. I'm also in the dark on which other players he is planning to sign or not.

I realise that this makes me a pisspoor pundit but its my assessment at the moment on the available data so there!

Good read that, he's right, we can do it!

Cracking read

I have put a bet on us to be champions! And another on us being promoted

why is it sarcastic to get behind marlon ?