Very good win I'd say not playing the best of football but a wins a win.

Will do DAD

Was at the game today and think what has already been said is spot on. Harrison and Laing still look scared whenever the ball comes near them and made several errors after which Loach (definitely MoM) saved their skin . Thorne is hopefully not yet fit as he seemed very off the pace. I thought Hawkins got a few decent tackles in but did little else before his half time substitution, though neither did any central midfielder in the first half as both defences opted for long balls which certainly suited Solihull who had the best of the first 45. Munns and Oates really changed things and put us on the front foot second half and we’re both heavily involved in our first goal. We started passing the ball round and stifled their game for a while but sat back a bit and let them back into the game. Thought we were very lucky to come away with three points in the end and would be interested to know what the thought process was in bringing Adams on towards the end and playing him in what seemed like left midfield ahead of Deverdics, who was then playing in a back three.

At this level as long as we win who gives a shit?

Not sure it's with 20 notes to watch it though.

So it is a little bit of a dillema.

Mr Twilight Zone I believe you were seeking a pathetic post?

Average stuff today, but at least we’re trying to play footy (sometimes). How many poolies there today? Seemed a good turnout, and that was a bumper crowd for them (no doubt inflated by the parents of all the kids on the pitch at half time).

I’d say you’ve hit the nail on the head for the four weak links. Unfortunately, that’s the spine of the team. After today, I can’t see why anyone would have a go at Featherstone. He’s always available and is central to any effort we have to play football.

Attendance 2658 - a new home record, 339 Poolies

If the performances keep giving us the results we need to get promoted out of this league we are in, I am going to be happy as that has got to be our number one priority.
I thought the first half was just hoofball and Loach kept us in it, whereas their goalie had nowt to do. Second half we went up a notch, kept it down more, which allowed Featherstone and Munns to generate more football. Featherstone was awesome in the second half, he was pick of the outfield players for me.
The new guy, Thorne, needs to improve dramatically from that performance and hopefully he will, as he gets more match fitness.
Onwards an upwards.

Trouble is we seem to come out and play their kind of football. Hoof and chase. KEEP IT N THE GROUND.
The penny does eventually drop, but how about cutting out the high stuff earlier.

Agree Snowy, I would like that as well but I am prepared to sacrifice a bit of entertainment if it gets us promotion. How long I'm prepared to do that is another matter.
Our support at the moment is very good and we have a parachute payment. The payment is finite and lasts two seasons max, The support will dwindle the longer we stay in this league and faster if we get relegated from it.
Time will tell.

Anyone got a link for the highlights ?

Why do they always show the first and second half kick offs....

And that was never a penalty in month of Sundays!

Can't disagree with any of the previous comments concerning the quality, players etc. and would definitely nominate Loach as MoM. A great signing for sure. He was forced to make several saves, some very good, and kept us in the game at times. Until Oates scored, the longer the game went on, the more I could see us going behind but the result is the one that matters.

I still can't make sense of the situation with Adams, as I said last week, and why the fuck we continue to lump the ball upfield on a regular basis against these type of sides baffles me even more. Their number thirty must have been seven foot twelve while his mate at twenty six wasn't far behind so what's the point? We must keep the ball on the deck and attempt to put a few passes together as was proved when Oates and Munns came on.

Leaving the ground at the final whistle, there was little space to walk between the cars leaving and those still parked. I found myself walking behind a chap with his daughter - a little blonde girl in a pink coat aged about three or four who was contentedly singing, "Hartlepool is my passion" over and over again. For those who trot out the old adage, "Football is a game of twenty two men kicking a ball around a field" (and I've met a few) should witness scenes like this. If 'dad' is reading this, "Good on you, mate".

Couldn't agree more, Chip, but why do we need to resort to the hoofball in the first place? I appreciate that there are occasions when needs must but as a matter of course, it achieves absolutely SFA. Stating the bleedin' obvious, it results in us losing possession and the ball coming straight back, putting us under pressure again. It's been going on for years now and under different managers to boot.

Forgot to add that it surely can't be because the manager doesn't fully have the confidence in our players to do otherwise? Now that would be worrying.

I thought we tried, at times to play football. But players at this level are limited; I'd prefer to see the likes of Harrison put his foot through the ball, rather than try something he doesn't have the skills to do. Also, the first 20-30 minutes are always a bit frantic with little space. To expect players, at this level, to not go long early is unrealistic.

I was looking at the HT/FT stats the other day and i think we have gone into half time drawing in 8 games so far - we won 5, drew 2 and lost the other game. Compared to Torquay I believe it was who had also gone into half time drawing 8, but lost 7 and drew the other game or something.

Harrison says himself he is trying to keep things tight and its clearly that its working over the last 10 games or so. Maybe he simply knows if we keep the game tight that our fitness will always give us a good chance later on?

The club was never going to go from a losing mentality over however many years to a winning one straight away, he is slowly getting us there and it can carry on like this all season for me however I suspect we will start scoring a few more goals towards the end of the season.

Strange also to see we have one of the best defences in the league.

Got a few injurys in key areas at the minute so hopefully once they clear up, we can start taking the game to teams. I still think were showing a bit too much respect to certain teams but you cant argue with the results.

On the whole we have a group of players who are used to losing. Even our star performer Scott Loach played his last football for a team that were relegated whilst he was between the sticks. I think when Harrison first came in he simply wasn't used to that, he'd won six league titles, his players were used to winning. Confidence here was fragile at best and we couldn't react to going a goal down. Now we are playing less attractive football, but winning. The confidence is building, the players will start to get used to winning. It's 11 v 11 at the end of the day, doesn't matter where our players have come from or what they've done before. We are in this division and have to earn the right to win games, not just expect to turn up and beat teams we've never played before.

A agree with that post 100%, the good thing is we haven't just taken points off teams who are expected to struggle in recent weeks we've ground it out and taken something off teams around the top as well. With confidence and hopefully another addition or two performances will come as well as points. If it remains to be the latter until May then so be it though at least I don't have to watch it

CAnt argue about the safety first policy or keeping the game tight or playing long ball.

What's worrying surely though is that only bad finishing and a good keeper is stopping us losing.

Which suggests we aren't keeping it tight but are carrying a lot of luck coupled with a top keeper.

What's worrying about having a good keeper?

Nobody wants a good keeper.

I played the game long enough to know that if you are relying on your keeper almost every game something is wrong somewhere else.


And we needed him against Solihull who haven't won for 14 years.

This isn't meant to be negative as I am delighted with the wins and was jumping about like a mad man on saturday tea time.

Or another argument is that we are taking our chances (being clinicial) when the oppositions aren’t?

Goes without saying.

All I am saying is that a good resilient defence doesnt allow that many chances, especially against cannon fodder opposition.

I take it its fair to say that about solihull?

I mean there must be someone we arent in awe of.

I wouldn't attempt to disagree with all your valid points because I agree with them!

As TFM said, we are capable of playing some decent stuff on occasions and that is more or less the point I was trying to make, perhaps, not very well. Having got a hold of the game on Saturday, we allowed Solihull a sniff of the ball when, I thought, we should have made more of an effort to retain possession and keep them at arm's length. The phrase I used was, "as a matter of course" and unless someone like Featherstone (who stood out) or Deverdics can get on the ball, our options seem extremely limited. The ball then becomes a hot potato and it is whacked aimlessly, almost without fail, to be met by their defenders who immediately return it with interest. It only takes one fluke, deflection, tap in or shit-hot effort to put us a goal down and I'm not often that confident in Pools' ability to retrieve the situation. As PIN said, I also believe we are riding our luck at times but that makes a change that we are actually enjoying some!

Obviously, it's a results game and the fact we have currently stopped leaking silly goals and our performances have also improved all round bodes well for the future. If our system brings the points, then that's fine by me and I hope we can keep it up. I wasn't complaining about our "boring" style, only the fact that we present the opposition with the opportunity to have a go at us by conceding possession far more times than I think we should.

It's about percentages, if a defender or midfielder lose the ball close to their own goal then the chances of conceding are high, if a player plays the ball into the opposition half or into touch the chances of letting one in are slim.

With regards to riding out our luck you can do that in one or two games but not over nine or ten.

Hard work teamwork and organisation are the canvas which allow you to ultimately paint beautiful football paintings on.

I fully accept the percentage point you make but, by the same token, the longer we can retain possession then it follows that it limits the opposition's chances of stinging us accordingly. I can recall many occasions in the past when we have cleared the ball into the other half only to be hit on the break by players running at us with pace. Hopefully, Harrison has now managed to eradicate this problem.

Top marks for your paintings analogy, by the way!

I agree with that; until we scored, they were completely toothless, yet once we went 1 up, you could see the back line retreating. We should have just continued what we were doing. Also agree that only Devs and Featherstone stood out, but I also think it's a bit unfair on Woods; he was, at times, trying to play, but as he was more advanced, he had less space. And you're right about the luck; Harrison tried his best, with that sliced clearance and daft challenge, to give them a goal when they never looked like scoring. If I remember rightly, that was from an aimless hoof that he should have dealt with easily.

Cheers for that, TFN.

Although we are obviously discussing this on a Solihull thread, I think I should have made it clear that my thoughts were aimed at us more generally rather than on this one specific match (although I think they still apply!).