The team showed some fight second half and it's good to have Magnay back - a bit of much needed experience in a defence full of young lads that gave away another shockingly bad goal.

As I've said before, Newport are staying up, but Pools can get back above Cheltenham. The game at their place is going to be absolutely hooge, as John Hartson would say.

Typical Curle side, lumping high balls to giants, players screaming and feigning injury (only when winning tho). Horrible fucking man and club. Wish someone decked that ugly 'lovely lovely person' Devitt.

Would like to see the keeper come off his line especially when corners are dropping in our 6 yard box. Couple of decent saves like. Thought Donnelly had a good game today. Disappointed with Woods and would have liked us to bring Rodney or Rooney on as their center backs were slow as hell and looked like they could have been turned easily.

Agree 100% about Curle. Sorry,I missed this comment when i was busy giving the man his own thread!I thought Woods did some good things when the team got going but was anonymous till then.

It was Harrison, got the wrong side and was out muscled, almost did it again second half.

Fully agree Harrison was at fault for goal but he is still the only one who attacks the ball. Walker did little wrong but was only average in my opinion and certainly did not dominate. What I look at the last three home games, Wycombe,Portsmouth and Carlisle. What did they have, two big central defenders who dominate especially in their own box . We have heart in mouths every time a corner or free kick goes into our penalty area. Problem is we have nobody else.

As I say the centre of defence is weak as is most of the team. I do not think Harrison is that good but he is the only one with any aggression. In my opinion he was better than Walker today let's remember he was the one marking the big phyisical striker who is probably a handfull for most central defenders. You must have been out to the toilets when Walker made his mistakes.

The game has changed but I'm afraid our league is still full of six foot odd central defenders who dominate in both boxes or have you not noticed that. I keep saying the team is phyisically weak all over.

Not great signs when the first player you get signed up for next season, is probobly someone who would struggle to get a game in the conference.

At no time have I said Harrison is a good centre half all I am saying is that we are weak all over the park and that includes central defence.

We are weak all over the park but our centre midfield means our centre backs have more work to do than most.

Harrison was rightfully released last summer.

If we somehow stay up and he's first choice, we in for a long season yet again. No idea why he decides to try and get into a physical battle when he is simply always gonna lose. I counted at least 3 times today if he had just focussed on ball instead of ibhere, he would of probably won it

It was right in front of us he got outmuscled about 30 seconds before and ended up the the wrong side of Ibehre, for the goal he was having a go at the three lads around the throw in for turning and running away as they thought it would be lobbed into the box and let Ibhere get a touch with his foot directly from a throw in and be clean through to score.

I have stuck up for Harrison but I reckon that defensively is the worst goal I have ever seen Pools concede.

Honestly they were fucking rubbish as well.

It's good to read the board as an exile because on the Facebook page once again their goal was Featherstones fault. I think he's to blame for the Syrian conflict, climate change and Trump as well

So are you implying that we should also offer Walker another contract? A player who along with Harrison has been on the losing side 90% of the time they have played together. Would that constitute improving the playing squad? I think not, scatter them both I say, but of course we are stuck with Harrison now, please god lets not have Walker alongside him again next season, granted the lad has done well since switching to central defence , but still not good enough.

At start of season I would of been more than happy with a mid table finish, now I feel we are 5 or 6 decent signings away from a mid table finish next season , and we all know we haven't got a pot to p*ss in, so that's not going to happen anyway.

We could potentially in the future sell Brad Walker for a lot of money.

Technically he's the best footballer at the club and looks a natural at the back.

Release him!!? With that sort of thinking you should be on the board

Let's get this right.
I have never said Harrison was a good centre half. I do not need to see a TVs repeat to know he was hopeless for Carlisles goal it occurred right in front of me. All I say is he is the only one to show real aggression, sometimes over the top and can be hot headed.
I have not critiqued Walker only to say I do not think he has been as good lately. To say he was not noticed then he must be doing a good job I thought that is what you say about referees not central defenders. He was rightly m.o.m on his first few games but I only question has that been a purple patch.
I appreciate the game has changed, particularly for central defenders, since the 1970s but today's are still mostly over 6'2" who dominate in the air at both ends and generally end up with 4 or five goals a season. Just look at all leagues whether it is WBA, Chelsea, Newcastle, Fleetwood,Portsmouth etc they all have big dominating central defenders.
As I said every time Carlisle got a corner,free kick and even some throwins it was panick stations.

I dont know what jones is i carnt work him out,we lose 3 on the bounce and go to morecambe and believe me it was the same as yesterday if not worse.
So what does he do he keeps the same team ffs what on earth makes him think this team is going to win a game now its 2 points from the last 15 and we think we wont go down.
The point is i believe he can play the same team more or less as beat stevenage but he wont i know walker has played ok at CB but yesterday proved when Magnay had to come on our right hand side was not threatened and were did their goal come from.
My message to Jones would be even if we dont go down is @uck you,you are clueless.

Have the players given up the ghost?

They put plenty into the second half yesterday I don't think you can fault the effort.

I must admit I agree with Chip for a change. I don't think there is anything on the bench that would make much difference. We are just a physically and mentally weak team. (Must be sick to death of me saying that)

They just look like they don't have a clue what to do. There's no character of fire in their bellies, they just lack the fight needed.

Magnay made a difference when he got on, though he wouldn't have seen any game time but for Richardson getting a knock. Magnay didn't seem to be at all hampered by the after effects of his own injury, so quite why Jones hasn't consider playing him sooner is beyond me. At the very least, he's a seasoned pro with a competitive streak - not exactly qualities that are in over-supply in the team at the minute.

Dave Jones' reluctance to make any changes to the team or his tactics is doing us no favours at all. How many times does the ball get punted up towards Amond when there's not another Pools' player within 20 yards of him? What's he supposed to do, win it in the air against a bloke 6 inches bigger than him and then run on to his own knock down?

Dave Jones doesn't even change his clothes so do you really expect him to change his players?

I get the impression because of Jones background he thinks he is a big shot and way above our level.

I also get the impression he may not listen to others so always believes he knows best.

His Pools record says otherwise.

Yup

The way it happened surely something made is escalate? A flashpoint or row?

As you say he was probably always a dead man in the summer which fair enough when you bring in a whole new coaching team, many have said that's what has been needed for a while but I reckon I picked two more balanced teams on the Bunker the day before than Jones picked yesterday.

Another thing I have heard is that he's already told Paynter, Bates and Jones that they are gone at the end of the season. Paynter and Jones fair enough but Bates is fit to play right now if he's called on do you reckon we could trust him to put in a performance given him and Jones don't like each other and he already knows he's on his way? The thing is Jones is probably in the right and has called out Bates to his face about the way he looks after himself and how serious his injuries actually are but when available the bloke is a decent footballer and let's be honest we are not overloaded with them right now!

If we'd left Collins in charge till the end of the season we wouldn't be having this conversation.Trouble is this was never about just the football and a hammer's been brought in to crack a walnut ... which turns out to be a ball bearing.

I think it's safe to assume the trouble between Jones and Bates stems from the away game at Luton in mid-February. Jones started with Bates in the back four then subbed him after 14 minutes, by which time Pools were already 2 down. I think it was Chip who saw the game and said on here that it was obvious Bates was carrying an injury and wasn't fit to play?

For the last 6 games he's been on the bench, so presumably, like Magnay, he's fit to play now? Has Jones even considered playing Bates in front of the back four? Pools have been easy to attack through the middle all season because nobody in midfield knows how to defend. Bates reads the game well, is decent in the air and can pass a ball.

It's odds on that Jones will persist with Featherstone and Woods as his central midfield pairing till the end of the season. Pick the same team, get the same results.

At the moment I would rather Collins in charge than jones


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I wouldn't personally it's a bit different to being caretaker for one game being full time manager. Results would have tailed off for anyone with this squad and given time Jones will turn the playing side of things around he has a proven record of doing that. Collins full time at the club was synonymous with failure and I have no problem with him being moved on but agree with chip about the timing.

Jones had a history of turning things around, those days are long gone, he has been sat at home getting lardy for years and seems to have forgotten his mojo.
The subject of his man management skills has reared it`s head, all in all it sounds a joy to play for him!

For the first time in the looooooooooooooooooooooooong succession of 'GREAT ESCAPES' (vol 5) I don't see a team with the potential to get itself out of trouble.
If Jones hasn't made his mark on the squad after the time he's had, I don't see much to look forward to.
Sam Collins, while not the answer, couldn't have done much worse.

I don't think he will turn it around, in fact I think the opposite. He's a spent force, a dinosaur, and is only here because of his connections with Sage who we owe a shitload of money to. Awful appointment, if it was even an appointment at all, and I can honestly say I feel no affiliation or warmth towards him at all. Utterly characterless.

He comes across to me as the grumpy caretaker. Whatever he's doing with the team appears to be doing little for their confidence or what ability they have. They look like the crew of a ship waiting to jump ashore at the end of the voyage of the damned and not coming back.They look like they just want the season over and done.