1-1 Kabamba 85 minutes

282 poolies

Gallons of chilled water

Halifax 3 Hartlepool 1

Toure with the goal.

300 Poolies

1- 2

Halifax 0 Pools 2
Kabamba, James
275 Pools

Halifax 1-4 Pools

Halifax 3 - Pools 1 (Hoping I'm wrong!)

Me mate who worked for Halifax says they're gettin it down a bit more this season. Think that plays into our style nicely, I'll go 2-0 with Featherstone running the show. Kabamba to get a goal.

1695 w/450 pools fans

As I'm always wrong, Halifax win.

Hopefully we will get a point at least. 2...2

Just glad we got a game so quick after Saturday.

2-0 to Pools, ever the optimist

Presuming that's a 442 diamond. Our midfield just got even slower.

If Hignett predictably goes gung ho as is his wont after the opening defeat we will get battered 3-0. If he approaches the game sensibly we may just secure a point 1-1 - either way I hope I am proved wrong.

FC Halifax Town 1 Pools 3
Featherstone, Kabamba and James.

1,540 Pools 340

Halifax 3 - Pools 1

What’s the line up, how are they playing?

almost identical to Saturday, now 2-0 down.

Had to turn commentry off as I cant listen to Jeff Winter.

Giving up on this unnoficial or official prediction after two games and two wrong results. Can things get any worse?

Three predictions and three wrong results, maybe?

Yeah, probably Charco. Brain getting a bit addled in my old age. Ah well. Thanks for reminding me.

And Hignett's message to his players is simple. “Win,” he said. “That’s it, win – good teams don’t lose two in a row.”

Only 2 games but it's quickly starting to look like groundhog day.

‘We need to hit the ground running if we are to get out of this League’ Hignett pre-season. Great team strengthening job Higgy you appear to be well on the way to achieving your goal.

‘We didn’t have a cutting edge’ wails Higgy - could this represent a plea for the 20 goal striker that we don’t need? Hey perhaps our old buddy Jake will kindly show our ‘strikers’ how it’s done on Saturday?

I would gladly give more than a penny for Raj Singh’s thoughts even at this early stage. Still, with 40 odd games to go we can yet challenge for mid-table mediocrity so let’s not get TOO downbeat guys n gals....

Dreadful performance, undone by incapability to defend a long punt over the top and to pick up people at set pieces. Whole back four looks shaky. Build up play even slower than Saturday, no width no spark up front. He should have been playing a settled team in pre season to give players time to gel the whole back four look like complete strangers to each other and none of them seem to be communicating with the keeper. Great turn out from Pools fans but you can already see people starting to lose heart judging by how many left before the end.

Much better on the ball. But could have played for 3 hours and not got a goal.

Hignett brings Williams on worth 8 mins to go, what chance does he have!

Very, very concerned for the season ahead. Their keeper didn’t have a save to make, not one! Rubbish.

Oh and Raynes... no wonder he didn’t play in League 2... Christ alive!!! PANIC MODE

Good teams don’t lose two in a row... here we go... strap in Poolies

I finally gave in and went to Halifax.
Pedestrian performance yet again. Raynes is developing into a liability.
Higgy says we were the better side..............at what?????????
On Saturday he said some had an off day, tonight we had no cutting edge but never mind we were the better side.
The object of the game is to score more than the opposition. The better sides do that. So far we've scored one and the opposition have scored five.
We're not going to panic he says.
He has one get out of jail card, some players are injured so there is a chance that, with these players fully fit, he can turn it round.
I don't think it will be long before Raj is telling him to turn it round, friends though they might be.

Hignett has totally handicapped himself with resigning both Featherstone and Noble and then bringing Kennedy in aswell. Im sure Hignett knew our problem last season was no pace or energy in the middle, didnt he admit as much? Then he went and signed/resigned a load more slow, cumbersome players who are simply not involved enough. He favours 4-3-3 but you cant play that formation with a middle 3 who have no pace/energy and cant cover and help out full backs etc.

Hopefully Molyneaux back soon and id be going with the below as the midfield/strikers.

--------Mafuta---Bale---------
-------------Williams-----------
Molyneaux-------------Toure
-------------Kabamba--------

Bale in for his energy and both he and Mafuta told to just sit and mop up. Would like to think the pace of Molyneaux and Toure would make the opposition defence retreat 5 yards or so and give us plenty of room to play the ball about which would suit Hignett.

He needs to drop 2 at the very least of Noble, Featherstone and Kennedy for me.

agree. took ages for noble to get into the game and featherstone and kennedy really faded during the game. never liked featherstone and noble starting a game together and just another performance just to underline the fact. as in footballing terms pools were probably the better side over 90 minutes but fancy football without any end result does not win games. ok they hadn,t the rub of the green with deflections or clearances which always fell to one of their players and the ref. was of the homer variety. if you do not shoot you do not score and how many shots did we have in a dominent first 30 minutes. at least sunday league hasn,t kicked off yet so there will be less taking the piss out of me.

Noble was terrible last night, Featherstone was better but Kennedy was invisible. As soon as Toure came on we had someone finally running at them and causing them problems and to put Williams at the end of the game on who had been warming up on the touchline nearly the entire second half, well words fail me. They say managers know better than the fans but sometimes it,s not rocket science it just there in front of us for all to see.

We controlled the game, says Hignett, but where did we control it. We certainly didn't control it in their final third.
The reason for that, in my opinion, is it takes us too long to get to their final third.
Having watched the two games so far, it appears to me that both Sutton and Halifax sat back and allowed us to come on to them with a view to hitting us on the counter. We get sort of sucked in and then comes the sucker punch.
We camped in Halifax's half for the first 30 mins.
That gives the impression that we are on top but are we???
Possession without penetration is not productive and leads to frustration when a goal doesn't come.
Sutton and Halifax had an out ball which we didn't do anything about.
We were undone last season with the long ball over the top to a mobile striker who is up against a not so mobile defender who is also isolated. We still haven't found a way to deal with that situation.
We need more urgency when on the ball, instead of slow methodical build up which allows the opposition to get into shape and set themselves for the counter.
Ross Turnbull needs to work with Killip on how much he gets on the ball when shot stopping. Killip is prone to making a save but presenting the follow up man with a tap in.
If he can't get two hands on it then parry it out for a corner or at least away from danger.
I've noticed both opposition so far concentrating on getting a follow up man in. Perhaps this is known by other coaches to be a weakness there to be exploited. So maybe a bit of specialist coaching is needed there. Just a thought.

Maybe their scouts have done the business, do we have a scout who goes to oppo matches?

I went to Woking vs Aldershot last night. I was wearing my Pools polo shirt and wearing a Pools hat. They thought I was a scout
I think we should beat Woking next month. They were so on top for the first half but lacked a cutting edge. Aldershot were in the lead after a very soft goal. They then spent the rest of the match in control, timewasting at every opportunity to the frustration of the home fans. Sound familiar?

I quite like the look of that permutation, tREE, in the absence of the other injured. It ought to provide more pace and guile and far better attacking options. I'm assuming that you are sticking with the current back four (Kioso/Richardson) or have you considered giving the likes of Cunningham the nod to shore up the centre of defence?

Option 1 looks a decent squad but I would swap James for Muir and use James to run them ragged when tiring the last 15.

[quote="derwent"]
That gives the impression that we are on top but are we???
Possession without penetration is not productive and leads to frustration when a goal doesn't come.

its when it all falls down when a player receives the ball eventually at the edge of the penalty area or in the box itself with his back to goal. no wonder a shot does not come in never mind a goal.

We must have the best injured players in this division.
As for the budget I'm sure Raj has overspent to achieve the objective of promotion.
Just hope it doesn't go tits up by Xmas and he's relying on Man Utd away in the FA Cup 3rd round to keep the club ticking over.