Didn,t realise he was out on loan at Shrewsbury, popped the winner in at Fleetwood last night, a pity we didn,t have a bit of quality in our team.

Nice player to be able to get on loan, to freshen up a promotion push. Thomas and Nsiala, who'd of thought it?.

What a player. Just great to watch.

Agree ! though I reckon Bob Newton on his day would've come close.

When Boydie was in the mood he could win games on his own. I have never seen a performance from a Pools player like that magical night against the Wendies.

Tish scored the first goal for The Killies up in Scotland last week as well. (he's been around since leaving Reading for Pools on loan). And didn't Toto score a winner for The Shrews 2 games ago?

I think Boydie for a consistent period over 18 months wins it for me as well. Every game in that spell I expected some match winning magic from him against teams a level up.

In saying that the pace and direct running of Thomas were incredible too.

Up until Thomas left last year we always had one player who was capable of pulling something out of the bag for us. As well as Thomas, Boydie, Porter, Brown, etc we also had going further back the likes of John Cullen who shone briefly. Also I remember Chris Beech being the only decent player we had at one point (until he refused to play for us).

The promotion team of 91 had quite a few including Dalton, Honour, Baker and Allon and before that we had the likes of Houchen, Newton of course. We didn't realise how lucky we were...

Ahhh! but we have a match winner in Woods now who is so good we can,t afford to let him leave Yah nah.

Starting with Kenny Johnson and Leo Harden (that just about covers living memory), we've had a canny few.
Phythian and Mulvaney, who if you needed a goal just said OK here's one. Tery Bell. Bob Newton, who whenever he had the ball in the penalty area always tested the goalie. Eifion scored plenty of crucial goals. Even Steven Istead, who could always run dead fast and get a penner or score from a miskicked cross if we really needed a goal.

I think what Mad John was alluding too, was a player who on his day could win a game on his own, a Rodney Marsh or a Robin Friday, a talisman, character who wasn't great every game but on his day created memories that a young supporter would remember forever.

In that respect in my time following Pools I can only think of Newton, Watson , Boyd, Thomas and possibly Porter towards the end.

I think he flattered to deceive far too often. Some games he looked unplayable and definitely a level above where he was playing. Could well have been down to the shit players we had dragging him down though

Eiffion Williams was better than Thomas and contributed more to the team.

Humphreys when at his best was a better player.

Paul Smith for 6 months was better than Thomas.

Tommy Miller was too as was Paul Stephenson. Dalton was more consistent and contributed more.

My opinion obviously and Thomas was great on his day just I enjoyed watching those other players more.

You are talking chalk and cheese, all totally different players I’m not sure how you define ‘better’ even Paul Smith who was an out and out winger was totally different he just had to shift a bit of space then let his left foot do the rest.

Thomas was exciting, skillful, direct but sometimes erratic and sometimes a bit flakey maybe, but under Hignett he looked a massive talent. I have never seen a Pools player beat a man with as much ease. But maybe an insight into his temperament was how he played when he felt loved (Hignett) and and when he didn’t (Jones). A bit of half decent man management by Jones probably would have kept us in the Football League as he might have turned a couple of games towards the end of the season.

Robbie Mckinnon " beat a man with much ease" every game what a player he was with superb close ball control Dalton also used to glide past defenders. But for me its always Jan ove pederson a premiership class player who to this day is the stand out match winning player. The problem with him was he was world class compared to the rest of the team at that time but imagine what he could have achieved here if playing with better level players and getting another season under his belt. No one comes close to this talent and probably never will Our history books do not show titles / trophy's / or stand out wins with Jan in the team..But don,t be fooled this lad was the real deal.

Few would disagree that Pedersen was our stand out player in terms of ability, but I can't recall him winning many matches for us, so can hardly be called a match winner in respect of his goals winning matches, and I think that was the point of this thread.

Of course with better players around him, he would of been sensational, but that could of been said about a lot of players over the years.

Jan Oves display at Notts County was still one of the best performances I’v ever seen in our shirt.

No player since I’ve been going since 89 has made me get as excited as Thomas did when he got the ball in some space.

Oh for a Bob Newton now, I've never seen a player in a Pools shirt since who could shield the ball and retain possession as well as him, if you were leading 1-0 with 5 minutes left he could actually keep hold of the ball next to the oppo's corner flag for the full 5.

His core strength was immense, he'd put those big arms out of his and keep the defenders at a distance where they basically couldn't get close enough to him to get a foot in.
He would push defenders over and knock them off balance to such a degree he would leave 3 defenders sat on their backsides emerging with possession. I'm not sure if that's something you can teach a player or it's just natural.
I learnt a lot from just watching him, he was dirty but very discreet about it, ask any defender who had to mark him and they knew they were in for a torrid afternoon.
Please don't preach to me about playing the game the right and honest way, as every team we come up against has several players like that .........whereas we don't seem to have any.

Always remember a game v Torquay , when Newton was involved in a 50/50 with 3 Torquay players, their keeper and 2 defenders. Watching , you knew what was coming , and I remember thinking someone is going to get hurt here, I hope its not Newton.

Fast forward 30 seconds, ball is dead, ref has stopped game because of a collision, Newton is stood watching over 3 Torquay players laid on the ground , receiving treatment. Think for one of them it was the last action of the day. Newton just looked over at the Mill House stand, grinning , big gap in his front teeth.

Funnily enough Torquay had a big nasty b*stard playing for them, its how it was in those days, Les Lawrence, who seemed to hate playing against us, can't for the life of me think why...

I totally agree tree It was the best I have ever witnessed from any Pools player in all my time following our team. The thing was Notts County where top of the league and I believe we lost 2-0? It was Gary Jones who scored both goals and was the divisions top scorer then he signed for us and the goals dried up. I was having a few bevvies with him after a Pools home game ( I top top bloke) and we got talking about the lack of goals from him at pools and he said I have never been a player who scores loads of goals it was simply a fluke season at County. I asked about the pederson game and he remembered him and said our midfield (County) was by far the best in the league that season but at half time the manager was going ape shit asking why are you not getting in his face or chopping the little b*stard down....Our captain said no point shouting and balling at us because we have all tried to stop him but he is unstoppable. He had no idea at all how County won that day and he said we only had 2 chances I managed to put them both in....Think that says it all really.

That was a feature of Pools that season, totally dominate teams and get beat 2-0

This reminds me of a sportsman’s dinner in the lounge at pools many years ago. John McGrath was the guest speaker who signed big bad Bob from pools when he was manager of Port Vale. He said he signed him because he didn’t want his defenders facing him again the season after he battered and frightened them playing for pools the previous season