Pools 0-3 Portsmouth....4893!!!!

0-2

0-4 Portsmouth

Harrison to be sent off

Pools 0 Portsmouth 1 (4444)

Great Escape Mode

1-1 draw

Walker

4343

Either a 0-0 borefest like it usually is at home to Pompey or an away win. Can't see us beating them to be honest.

Naismith will score for them obviously.

Unless we draw 0-0. In which case, he'll have a goal disallowed.

We can,t afford to start with a shit first half as usual, got to be up for it from the off. If the crowd can make some noise straight off I can see us actually winning, they have it all to play for as well so lets hope they have a nervy start.

Pools 2 Them !

Thomas, Walker.

4.463.

#PMA, 2-1 Pools, Thomas and Harrison, 5283 and someone will pee in the bin!

PMA NSD PTID UTP

1-1 Hatman to score our goal.

Aren't NSD and PTID contradictions? In fact NSD contradicts itself.

I absolutely despise "Never say die". As you say it contradicts itself for a start but my biggest gripe with it is it's a rally towards survival. It's just negative.

Happy to say, it now depends on which pools turn up.

Aye well. Over the past 45 seasons supporting Pools the team has been involved in a relegation or re-election battle in at least half of them. To say nothing of off the field problems. Nobody can say NSD hasn't been apt, but will happily trade it in for We Are The Champions next season.

Think we'll get a result on Saturday.

1-0. Thomas.

Pools 1 Pompey 0. Seagull deflects ball past their keeper from Amond backheel and the goal counts up at The Rink End. That bloke with the long hair, tatooes "Mr Pompey" hits himself with the bell end and gets mistaken for Lawrence. Lawrence's bit of luck for us from the great beyond. RIP Lawrence and a message to the Pompey bloke. Sorry mate but fair play to you for following your team through all the strife etc. Certainly not a plastic fan. Safe journey home and for good measure you will still make it up. Isn't it awfully sad that Carlisle have hit the buffers recently? Wkye's revenge.

0-2 Pompey

IDST


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Pools 1-3 Portsmouth, 4100

a cheeky 2-1 win, against the run of play, they will dominate and we sneak 2 in the last 10minutes.

4302

no idea which no mark will play, never mind score, anyones guess!

'Never say Die' doesn't have to be negative but I agree it does have slightly defeatist connotations. The original song was all about the club basically surviving by the skin of it's teeth both on and off the field. Mind even that Candy Ranch song in the early nineties included the line 'you'll never wind us up!' so it's a theme apart from about ten years quite recently that has been a fairly constant part of the clubs history. I'd probably be on the side of it going but's not actually important nor does it make any difference. The first season it actually featured on a shirt was our last promotion season when we achieved the most points in a season the club ever has, so what is actually more relevant is putting good players in the shirts rather than get annoyed what's written on them.

I'm quite looking forward to Saturday, Portsmouth are a funny team they have screwed over loads of coupons for me this season, you get the feeling they should be doing a lot better than they actually are. I reckon we'll give them a game and might even score a goal which I don't think we've done at home to them! The atmosphere will be good and our supporters will get right behind the team, I can see a Plymouth type performance with us scrapping for every second ball which now I have backed us to do alright will no doubt result in a 5-0 defeat.

Didn't some people write a new version of the song with more positive connotations ?? ...

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Never say die?

No! That's German, for 'Never say 'the''

2-1 to Pools. Strictly aspirational songs and slogans throughout.

NSNSD


Never say never say die

3 - 2 ,4756

Getting a lesson dealt us here!

Game was lost before it started with that formation.
We not safe yet.

Poor today, Amond too isolated up front and daft mistakes let us down.

Can we sign Burgess and Naismith back please?

Always thought we'd get beat and the 2 below us would win. Now we have 5 winnable games. 4 points will be enoigh

No complaints today pools tried but we were just not good enough.
On to morecombe next week

Thought we were a shambles today. Never seen us make so many basic errors.

Overrun in the middle and Amond too isolated as said above, thought we would have went two up top sooner than we did.

Usually a fan of Donnelly but that was terrible from him today but he wasn't alone tbh.

On the plus side on Facebook someone (wrongly) said Featherstone is in the top 5 worst players to ever play for us, David Clegg replied saying "Does that take me out of the top 5 now. Phewww "

Made me chuckle like.

I just don't get the Featherstone bashing. It makes me think the people watching the game don't appreciate players have different jobs on the pitch, we can't have a team of Thomas' in the same way we can't have a team of Featherstones. Also those who think keeping possession is a bad thing. What's that all about? I would much sooner keep the fucking ball by putting my foot on it and playing it backwards or square than try some fucking stupid pinpoint Hollywood ball with the outside of my right foot to the right winger who's marked by two players. And finally, the game is a fucking doddle on the sidelines. Professional or not, being able to pick a pass whilst under pressure is not always easy and pros play at 100 times faster than anything I'll experience.

Oh yes and people booed Oates going off because they wanted him to stay on....errmm...he's coming back injury, he was never going to play the full 90.

Not referring to anyone on here necessarily, just the people around me at the game who spout, in my opinion, some absolute dogshit.

As for today, the ref was an embarrassment. That must've been his first ever game. Blew for fuck all and got it wrong nearly every time. Why are so many refs fucking idiots? I'd love to see ex-players ref, even if they didn't play at any kind of level, in fact I think it should be a requirement. So many refs appear to be those nerdy types, nothing wrong with being a nerd, just don't referee football in your spare time, stick to your fucking train sets and posters of Kylie. Bit of a rant granted but I just found him infuriating.

Donnelly had ten bob boots on. One of those days for him.

Thomas was better today and I thought Alessandra played well, both looked a threat.

I just can't make my mind up if we were shit or they were just that bit better than us, probably a bit of both. The first goal was waaaay too easy and should've been cleared and for the record, Naismith was absolute 'lovely lovely person' in the first half. I can't abide whiny/whingy players, grow a fucking pair - there's a difference between clever play to buy a free kick and being an absolute pansy and the same goes for that fucking wanker of theirs who tried to get Alessandra sent off after whatever it was, 5 minutes?, needs shooting - I saw the challenge perfectly and Alessandra didn't touch him. Wanker. Oh yes and he was their Captain, nice example to set cocknose.

He probably was one of our better players today but him and Woods are not good enough. Neither of them score enough,or create enough or break up play enough.

Maybe not but I'd love to see Featherstone with a better team around him. For me, he does his job very well on the whole. Rarely gives it away, doesn't flap when under pressure and not bad defensively (positionally rather than ball winning).

It doesn't matter how close he is to our goal, he creates space for himself when surrounded before playing a simple, safe ball to a more creative player. That's exactly what you need from a defensive midfielder.

I'm not sure about Woods. And I've always maintained his finishing leaves a lot to be desired. But there is something about him.

All of that said, the fact we are where we are can't all be down to manager incompetence....probably....which makes it hard to defend all the players.

Every player would look better with more good players around him but I think he would have to get himself fitter to get himself into a decent team.

Im not Featherstones biggest fan at all but appreciate people can have different views on players.
For me a professional footballers job, and we keep hearing about him doing his job in his case I hear repeatedly is to keep the ball.
What is the point of it?
He passes it maximum about 6 yards, normally back or sideways it generates nothing.
He constantly stagnates a forward motion and progress is stopped.
Surely we can expect more from a pro player than that, its a zero contribution,!!

Correct me if i`m wrong, did Featherstone not get caught out 3 times in the second half dithering and don`t start me on deverdics, cost us the second goal and weak as piss, Martin is better than him in that position.

And before you start frothing at the mouth PJ, this is my opinion

When you are the player who makes himself available to receive the ball more than anyone else on the pitch and as such touches it more you will make mistakes over the course of the game. Every single player does make mistakes in a game. There's a bravery to continuing to play the way I assume the manager is asking him to play when a large percentage of fans are braying for it to be lumped forward

I don't get the whole sideways and backwards criticism, he passes plenty forwards as well. Selective vision I guess.

You really are desperate for attention aren't you?

Correct me if I'm wrong and I am a fan of Featherstone, but wasn't it a piss poor sideway pass in our half from him which led to the second goal?

You're correct but, in fairness to him, the ball he received from Deverdics was the cause of his problem.

If Jones is going to stick with the long ball from the keeper, then he has to play Oates in the middle. Keep him wide, then any attempt to punt it to him in that position limits the second-ball options. Amond can't be expected to win too many balls with 6 foot defenders throwing him all over the place, as he doesn't have the physique for that target role

I like Donnelly, but he looks to have had a few blips recently. Although he is versatile, perhaps he would benefit from playing in a settled position, & right back seems to be where he is least comfortable. I struggle to understand why him & Richardson weren't slotted into the full back roles.

As for the refs!!!! Walker's blatant push on their midget in the last 5 minutes?

It's long overdue that time-wasting is addressed in the game. I'm not saying this time lapse happened on every occasion, but in the second half it took the keeper 30 seconds to get the ball back into play, & a later throw-in took 20 seconds. Multiply the seconds across the whole match, & we supporters are getting short changed for our attendance money. Fair enough the ball can't be in play for 90 minutes, but the gamesmanship has gone too far. I don't like players dribbling the ball into the corners, but at least it puts the onus on the opposition to tackle, whereas when the ball's out of play only the ref can get things moving

On the time wasting what is getting on my goat at present, with all teams, is after a goal is scored the whole team run to the corner flag and the referee has to go over and drag them back. Yesterday even their goalkeeper ran over to the bench to celebrate the second goal.
Sadly though time wasting is an art that all teams do and we only moan when it is the opposition.

I crave yours, fancy spooning?

I agree Featherstone would probably get another club but it would probably be a Morcombe or Accrington definitely not a top club. Similar to what has happened to Duckworth. Why are we in the position we are in is maybe that the likes of Featerstone is one of our best players just an average lower league player.

On the topic of refs again; he marked out the 10 yard line with his aerosol, then took up his position with his back turned on the two-man wall, one of whom inched forward over the white line. If the line is to be enforced, you don't turn your back on it unless your assistant keeps an eye on it - which he's not going to do because he's further up the line, looking for off-side

Mr PJ, I couldn't disagree more.

You have to have a certain amount of quality to be improved by better players around you. You can't make a shit player good just because he's in a good side, he'll stick out like a sore thumb.

And fitness, he's quite capable of playing 90 minutes and does so week in week out and he isn't someone I'd describe as a lazy player so where does his fitness need to improve? If you're referring to pace well that's a different thing.

This will probably read as patronising, it's not meant like that if it does.

The thing is, you have another 10 outfield players trying to stop you so the forward ball isn't always on and there is one thing for certain, without the ball you're not going to score so first things first is retain possession.

The idea is to keep the ball whilst creating space by pulling their players out of position with runs off the ball.

As for stagnating forward motion, it depends what he sees in front of him. Sometimes he'll miss the obvious ball but other times he'll weigh up the pass (in a couple of seconds) and decide there is more danger in playing the pass than keeping the ball, from the sidelines you see everything without other players blocking your view or with a hatchat man breathing down your neck....and it's League Two. Even at the level I play at, in fact I did it today, I played a ball to our central midfielder and it was cut out because I just didn't see their man, a combination of our left sided midfielder and their right winger obscured my view, if I'd done it at the Vic it would've been met with groans...another thing....happened today too. Our left sided midfielder was wide open and calling for the ball, our central midfielder opted for the fucking near impossible killer ball to our centre forward...needless tosay we lost possession and lad on the left gave him both barrels. The ball to the lad on the left would've been square not forward.

Finally, not every player is there to create chances, professional player or not. And not every ball can be a forward one.

The problem I think we have at the moment is we struggle to create the space when the opposition have players behind the ball but a lot of extremely good sides have the same problem if the opposition sets up like that.