Pools got a 1-1 draw against Newcastle United U-23s today. Claudio Ofoso got his first goal in Pools' colours (last season's away strip) and Brad Young is supposed to have made a couple of excellent saves in the half he played. Hope we get to see him playing for the first team this season before he's sold to a bigger club, which in his case isn't hype, I'm sure.

Speaking of which Nicke Kabamba's 2 goals for Kilmarnock at the weekend are on the BBC website and both are terrific finishes. If he keeps this up they'll end up getting a lot of money for him from his next club. Can anyone remember whether Pools negotiated a sell on clause when he went to Kilmarnock last season?

We probably didn't, let's hope so. What I did notice about the Newcastle match report was that we fielded 4 'trialists' in the first half XI and 1 in the second, because it was a 'behind closed doors' affair the drawback is you may never get to find out who these players are. Which is a shame as it's always nice to speculate.

The sell on clause would have been set up by Mark M, I imagine. Goodness knows whether it happened but we can only hope that after the Fulham / Luca Murphy affair, the lesson was learned.
That said, Kabamba had a great start at Pools and then seemed to drop off. First season, 7 in 17; second season 7 in 31. That could well be a reflection of the difference of players creating the chances for him. Difficult to quantify. He's one that I think would still be at the club based on ability.

at times its not just a players ability its who managers can or want to work with. they all have different ways in how they want to play the game and sign players to enable them to do it. not much different to fans really. put 100 in a room together and i doubt they,d agree on the merits of one single play or how they wish to play the game and formations used.

He looks to have added some aggression to his game since he went to Kilmarnock - you probably have to to survive in the SPL!
He had all the physical attributes to be a dominating player in his time at Pools but didn't really use them to hustle defenders into making mistakes.

Its a well known fact, players bulk up when they leave Pools. For me its all to do with the poor training over the years. Hopefully under DC that will change. Our players always seem to be weedy little fookers compared to the opposition. The only period in my time following the club when this wasn't the case, what do you know, we actually won more games than we lost. You either sign the right players in the first place in terms of ability and physique or you sign ones with ability then build them up physically, not really rocket science but something that seems to have been a constant problem at Pools over the years.

I know we all go on about coaching at Pools but most of our recent coaches have in fact decent CVS. Curtis Fleming was at Middlesbrough, Bolton, QPR , Hignett left Pools the first time to go to Middlesbrough, Colin Cooper was at Middlesbrough and I believe is now coaching for the FA at their HQ, GED McNamee was at Sunderland for years before Pools and has returned there.
I think we all know that in this league you need a quota of big physical players we did have this when we had our good run but again you get what you pay for.
Like everyone else I moan about teams looking fitter and stronger but is it not just they are better players.

My point wasnt so much a criticism of the coaching, I'm sure thats standard across the game, straigth out of a coaching manual, usually involving training cones. It was more about us in the past appearing to do little in the way of lifting weights , running swimming etc, the sort of things that make a player stronger and bulk them up.

A good player IMO is a mix of being able to play the game, a football brain and fitness and strength. Over the years we have rarely had enough players with all of those attributes. The squad that finished last season contained some good players football wise, but were still getting brushed aside too easily physically.

^THIS^...that's why teams like Dover and Ebbsfleet did so well against us last season, they had done their homework and realised that when we get roughed up we cannot handle it. We have Imo been lacking in that department for a lot of seasons, hopefully the players being brought in by DC will address that issue.

Don’t you think all these coaches have thought of this. They are all experienced footballers and see the same as us. By the way another one I forgot Steve Agnew he too has coached at the highest level.
That’s football we all (me included) think we know the answers.

[^THIS^...that's why teams like Dover and Ebbsfleet did so well against us last season, they had done their homework and realised that when we get roughed up we cannot handle it. We have Imo been lacking in that department for a lot of seasons, hopefully the players being brought in by DC will address that issue.[/quote]

You didn't mention that the shameless gamesmanship (cheating) that teams like that employ to wind the opposition up. Feigning injury, trying to get players booked, time wasting... I've always hated teams who play like that against Pools, going right back to Frank Clark's cheating bastad of a Leyton Orient side in the old 4th Division. It all stems from unscrupulous managers, and is more prevalent in the NL than I've ever seen before because so many of the refs are piss poor.

The best way to put teams like that off their stride is to score early against them, something we've consistently failed to do for the past 3 seasons.

Couldn’t agree more I have never seen so much cheating that goes on in this league it is widespread but as long as referees let them get away with it there is little we can do. I’m afraid that’s the standard we have to put up with. I follow Darlington supporters on their web sight and it would appear their refs are even worse. You do have the answer score early but that’s easier said than done.

The standard of the SPL as we all know bar the top two & possibly Aberdeen, Hibs & Hearts is probably that of the National League at best or National League North.
Not knocking Kabamba he seems to be doing well at Kilmarnock, he is certainly showcasing himself there. It’s probably the level that suits him, Kilmarnock have appointed a manager who is well thought of coming from the Scottish National set up. He was a big leggy for us, & seemed to get knocked on his arse quite often, adding aggression to his game will serve him well in the SPL where many games are a bit of a scrap.
The chances are doing well for Kilmarnock could give him a move to the big two or even a move into Europe or the Football League. For us he seemed to hit the ground running in his first spell then found the goals harder to come by when he moved permanently. Good luck to him!

[quote="Johnjo1"]Couldn’t agree more I have never seen so much cheating that goes on in this league it is widespread but as long as referees let them get away with it there is little we can do. I’m afraid that’s the standard we have to put up with.
its not so much of cheating but of pushing the laws of the game as far as they can. there is more than one way to play the game. pools attempts to play nice proper football may be fine if the opposition are the same but easily get out muscled against teams that mainly rely upon size, strength and speed. when you know the majority play this way you have to match them. as for referees i have in the past criticised a number as basically they are not up to standard of our league and the fa are box ticking somewhat in there appointments. however when you attend games as a neutral like i do they do not seem as bad as they are at the vic. the reason is we are all biased.

[quote="horden"]My point wasnt so much a criticism of the coaching, I'm sure thats standard across the game, straigth out of a coaching manual, usually involving training cones. It was more about us in the past appearing to do little in the way of lifting weights , running swimming etc, the sort of things that make a player stronger and bulk them up.

think nowadays a lot of players do these things in the spare time and maybe pools expect them to do this. some players but not all need to get stronger and bulk up.

[quote="The deluded Mr Turner"]The standard of the SPL as we all know bar the top two & possibly Aberdeen, Hibs & Hearts is probably that of the National League at best or National League North.
Not knocking Kabamba he seems to be doing well at Kilmarnock, he is certainly showcasing himself there. It’s probably the level that suits him, Kilmarnock have appointed a manager who is well thought of coming from the Scottish National set up. He was a big leggy for us, & seemed to get knocked on his arse quite often, adding aggression to his game will serve him well in the SPL where many games are a bit of a scrap.
The chances are doing well for Kilmarnock could give him a move to the big two or even a move into Europe or the Football League. For us he seemed to hit the ground running in his first spell then found the goals harder to come by when he moved permanently. Good luck to him![/quote


I think you will find that the Scottish premier league is of a lot higher quality than the National league.

If it’s as easy as this why have our coaches not done anything about it. As I see it they are all experienced ex professional Footballers. I believe that teams go out and sign players who are already big physical players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8wrOGb1wiU

Some encouraging moments, good goal by Pools.

Mason Bloomfield is a big unit isn't he? Looks to have decent hold up play from what you can see from a couple of minutes of highlights. Can't see him being knocked off the ball too often.

Good goal from Ofusu, both the black lads up front look promising, especially Bloomfield. Hopefully the first of many crosses and assists from Ferguson , though finishing still a concern for me, apart from the goal did we hit the target during those highlights?.

It could be that our coaches were not the best coaches or more likely that the big physical players are generally the best players and we either couldn't afford them or they wouldn't have come here, anyway. What we need to do is work on the players we sign , for instance Bloomfield comes with the height and the physcial attributes , can we make him stronger, or will he stay the same or even lose what he already has , lets see.

Horden I get told off by my family for saying the two black lads up front. You wouldn’t have said the two white lads up front. Probably the same as me just comes naturally.

Did n't know it was a well known fact that players bulk up when they leave Pools ! But you have a real point re training and fitness levels. Remember all the frustrating give away goals in the 20 minutes of so many games a couple of seasons ago. Always thought it was down to poor training/strength levels. Think DC knows what's needed.

to a certain extent those late goals conceded have dried up a little. always thought however that pools may control a game for 70 minutes and then drift off the game. is it fitness or more defensive tactics coming in when we are in the lead.

I don't see a problem with saying it. If I had said the two lads up front, no one could be certain who I was referring to, just makes it easier for the reader to identify the players I was referring to. If it was a friendly involving two teams from Trinidad and Tobago, I might have said the two white lads, in order to distinguish between them from two teams containing no doubt predominantly black players. I am not a racist, try to treat everyone the same, when I say black it is said with sincerity not as a put down. People for years have said " that lad from the collierys" " oh he definitely was a Yakker, just the same. I dont do all this PC crap.

It would be interesting thought to know what the people in question thought about being called black lads , if they weren't happy then I would quite happily refrain from calling them black lads. Personally I think they should be proud to be black , like I am a Yakker, more important things to worry about to be honest.

I agree with Horden on this. We often read comments about people like Hoolihan.
Things like. "So and so crossed a lovely ball in from the left and Hoolihan guided it into the net. It is the Irishman's third goal in as many matches".
I was told on here by the PC brigade that the word "coloured" was taboo and to say "black" instead. Now it appears some people are unhappy with that.
The same people were willing enough to call the loids pikeys or peg sellers or heather bashers or caravan dwellers, notwithstanding that these names were intended to insult.
All Races or Creeds and certain groups have been singled out for name calling in this country over the years and those names are abusive. For me if we are to jump on anything it should be abuse in general and not be selective. People matter, children matter, families matter, communities matter etc etc. What colour they are is of no consequence like Horden says.

if you are talking to a pools fan about two pools players, one black and one white you will say their names. talking to a non poolie you may mention their colour to differentiate between them. there is no malice in this whatsoever. know for a fact that in my working life i was discribed as the tall bloke from the north east or sometimes geordie which i really objected to. it was easy to do this as there were other tall datk haied las about but i was unique. if black players do not want their colour mentioned then they should come out and say it. the same as i did about any geordie comments. doubt any fan would take offence in this.

I too objected to being called a Geordie and the vast majority of people accepted that and stopped doing it. People are generally reasonable when asked. The main thing though is that nobody called us Geordies out of malice or I'd like to think so, just as we don't use the word "Black" as an insult, or at least I don't. It is just descriptive but I usually ask people what they want to called, saves a lot of bother.

remember when offensive and insulting language took over from the foul language law of the game. i remember a couple of days before our local referees sociaty meeting sending a player off for calling me a fu----g geordie c--t. our secretary who was an assessor at the time said that if i found just being called a geordie offensive or insulting then that would be a legitamate reason to send the lad off even if no bad language was used. people certainly need to be careful nowadays.

Notice Brad Young not even starting for Blyth recently, very disappointing.