Gonna go for a big win 5-0, any scorers will do UTP!!!!!

Altringham ring up tonight to say they have Covid and the match is off. If it does go ahead Pools 1 Altringham 0 Holohan trademark hooley in top corner near the end. Can you hear the Altringham sing? No, no. How many do you lot think would have been there from Lancashire if they were allowed? My guess 95.

2/0 win both own goals.

We win 4-0

1-1.

2-1 win
Grey

Hat trick for grey, Then.

2-1 pools.

Expect us to win
3 1
Makes a change from hopeing we win.
UTP.

In these conditions, wouldnt back against it

Grey on the bench

Killip Cass JOHNSON ODUSINA FERGUSON Shelton Featherstone HolohanDonaldson Parkhouse Molyneux

Subs Ravas Crawford Bloomfield Grey Ofusu

Aye we called that one right Ron

My third eye has been speaking to Frank who has passed over to the other side and he said something about Sp sp sp spanking them. 4-0 to Pools.

Doh. If Gary Liddle's not even on the bench he's obviously failed a fitness test. Don't be applying for Mystic Meg's job just yet.

So you rate him, I don't...tough.

1-1 That was coming! FFS!

Bump! back down to earth. hang on!!!!

What a save!

Crawford nearly lost us that game, gave the ball away cheaply for their goal and the penalty, then gave a stupid free kick away right at the death which they nearly scored from...ffs.

Dreadful second half. Where did that come from? You'd think there'd be a big shake up for the Torquay game but the 3 substitutes tonight contributed nothing.

Lucky to escape with a point.

Thrown away tonight. They dragged us into a battle and we couldn't hack it.

Happy with a point. Great save too. Can’t wait for the next game. Hopefully we’ll learn from this one and be a bit tidier all round. Agree the subs had little impact. We didn’t manage to get in behind them, were wasteful in possession and fewer crosses in to the box. Hope their Stretchered off player is ok.

Lucky to get away with a point. Gave the ball away too often. I don't think these players concentrate enough, which is probably why they are at this level.
Slow pedantic build up play. Not good enough.
Ominous signs emerging that tell me we are going to struggle at home. One win in three is not promotion form.
Got to sort it out quickly if we are to avoid the feeling of what could have been.

We got away with it against Aldershot and now tonight, we just dont look like scoring at home, compared to the free flowing stuff away. We will be up there with a good striker and maybe one more defender.

Maybe he isnt up to playing 2 games so close together, the perils of signing a 34 year old

A really disappointing result, especially coming on the back of the previous home draw with Bromley, clearly we are a side better suited to playing away from home. Away from home midfielders tend to get amongst the goals, at home you need your strikers to score and therein lies the problem. We have what looks a good striker in Parkhouse, but he needs someone to share the burden, just like Salah needs Mane and Kane needs Son. Midfielders playing in front 3 are not the answer IMO.

With a tough November fixture list coming up, it was imperative we got 6 pts from these two home games, 4 would've been acceptable, but I think most would agree, if this was the case, then it would be a win v Altrincham and a draw v Torquay, not the other way around as it now has to be. There is every chance now though that we may only pick up 2 points or god forbid only 1 Torquay put us to the sword, and everything suggests this could well happen. This would be food and drink to the I TOLD YOU SO, HERE WE GO AGAIN BRIGADE.

For me DC got it wrong last night with his team selection, Grey should've started IMO. His subs weren't the best either. suggesting he was looking to see the game out at 1-0, when it was clear to see a second goal was needed to finish Alty off. The equaliser wasn't a surprise; it was expected, thankfully Killip saved the pen and a saved us from defeat, something that we know would've happened 12 months ago. Sub wise I think Grey should've replaced Molyneux.The only reason I can think of for taking Parkhouse and Molyneux off was tiredness, but sometimes its better just to plod on with your best players on the field, tired or not, we havent the luxury of taking two players off capable of scoring goals to be replaced by bums on seats signings such as Bloomfiedl, Ofusu and Oates, sorry but they are not good enough, I thought this when they signed, I think I now have the evidence.

Another thing I noticed was had Odusina been given his marching orders, we didnt have a defender on the bench, another reason I dont think Liddle failed a test due to fatigue. We wouldve had to go 3 at the back, with Cass and Ferguson in a back 3, two players who I dont think would be comfortable playing in a central defensive role. Apart from not having a defender on the bench, one of our problems is we havent got any midfielders who can drop back in to defence if these situations arose, though Donaldosn may be able to do a job at right back if needed.

The positives, DCs main strength is he is his own man, he will listen to advice but make his own decision, he did that last night by not playing Grey and Liddle. The problem with people who refuse to be swayed and take risks is that occasionally they get hurt, DC got hurt last night , but long may that confidence in his own ability remain. I don't think Liddle failed a fitness test, I think he was told he was on the bench, the fact he wasnt make of that what you will. We are still unbeaten, Killip continues to improve, and saved a penalty, despite limitations in other areas, he is becoming quite adept at saving pens, I make that around 4 or 5 he has now saved. We only conceded the one goal, we are not conceding two , if you score 3 every home game, you should be in the promotion mix, if you concede one every home game you should be in the promotion mix, our problem is we rarely score 3 at home. have it, hopefully we can move on ,learn from it and put this bitterly disappointing result behind us. We do need to sign a utility defender who can play right across the back though. iF we ever lost Ferguson it would be like Liverpool losing VVD.

The club should bring out a victor meldrew shirt. Unbeaten start continues, Still early days. Looking promising Overall. New signings yet to settle. Not all players will be confident yet Squad yet to gel properly. Luck appears to be on our side and even the standard of refereeing appears to be improving. But let’s not be content with saying players aren’t good enough. Let’s make some rumours up as well. Hahaha. Lmao.

What is looking promising overall? promotion? I don't think so, the warning signs are there. Not rumours , but a bit of second guessing, aka as foresight. What was wrong with Liddle? injured or failed a fitness test? either way its not good , but if he was 90% fit , then IMO given that we had no defensive cover on the bench , he should've been on it.

thats what a 6 nil away win does for you. over confidence and sloppyness. as for liddle, didn,t he go off on saturday so might be still not 100 per cent fit. at least we have a few days for challinor to sort things out, get players fit for on paper a much harder game on saturday evening.

I'm always assuming our aim is to get promoted.
Our whole club, from top to bottom, on the field and off the field has to be geared to that single aim, that single purpose, otherwise we will fail. There is no doubt about that in my mind.
We can look for so called positives as much as we like or churn out the usual excuses one after the other OR we can recognise where improvement is necessary and take steps to achieve that improvement.
We have no money, the players are still gelling, we haven't lost yet, etc etc etc are all very true but there is only one stone walled way of getting promotion and that is by finishing top and that won't be achieved using our current home form.
Yes it is still early but should we get beat by Torquay on Saturday, we will be seven points adrift of them after six games. That is a distinct possibility, a very real possibility and one which we need to pull out every stop to avoid.
Nobody wants us to succeed more than me but promotion is a tall ask and extremely difficult to achieve, especially from this league. Unless we are ruthless with our self criticism and stretch our every sinew, we will get nowhere near it.
These concepts need to be discussed and improved now and not when it's too late.
The alternative is to sit back, feel sorry for ourselves, roll out the same old excuses and remain a non league outfit for the forseeable.
Some would say we are lucky to have a club, others would say if you want success go and support a prem club or why can't we just accept that we're little old Hartlepool, who never win anything.
I don't want to support any other club. I want to support Pools and I want us to do well and if we are ambitious and do want to be a league club once again, I want to see evidence that we mean what we say and not live from season to season following the same old pipe dream that appears to be out of our reach. We need to bring it into reach, into reality and MAKE it happen.

Well said Horden and Derwent!

We are crying out for a decent striker, if we went in at 2-0 at half-time it would have been a comfortable home win by full-time, I have no doubts about that.

I think Challinor needs to start being a bit more brave/positive at home, especially against the lower sides who are just going to sit-back and defend.

We could get a draw against the bull and dog on Saturday and some fans would see the positives and say at least we are unbeaten. Harsh facts are, if you want to win the conference you have to win your home games, especially against Altrincham. We are very good at making excuses as a fan base, players gelling etc, referees. The simple facts are the last two if not three home matches we have looked very weak up front, unless that changes we will not fight it out with the Torquays and Stockports for automatic.

We are badly missing Gime Toure. A game such as last night he would have unlocked with a moment of brilliance.

I'm hoping there is more to these rumours of Nathan Thomas signing a short-term deal.

Challinor had Toure at Fylde and they apparently didn't see eye to eye. Then he had him at Pools and it didn't last. The question is does a Toure type flair player fit in with Challinors ideas or is he more interested in super fit, hard chasing, run all day players. Maybe that's why Williams seems to have disappeared, he doesn't fit in with Challinors idea of what a National league player's credentials should look like.
As a player the only creative streak Challinor had was his long throw.
Maybe a bit more balanced outlook is what the doctor might order.
Just a thought.
Maybe a Nathan Thomas type running riot is just what we need, a bit of flair and unpredictability. I would rather that than the likes of Rhys Oates. Sorry Rhys.
Thomas and Molyneax either side of Parkhurst would cause havoc, with Donaldson relegated to the bench. Grey brought on gradually. Whilst I'm in full flow I'd like to see a hard tackling ball winner in midfield as well. Cover at centre back also would be nice.

Toure is getting his game at Carlisle but has only scored once in 10 matches (EFL Trophy game where he was later sent off!). Last season with Pools the goals dried up before Christmas and he only scored once in his last 14 games. Gime's purple patch with us was terrific but might have been a one off.

I'd be happy to see Nathan Thomas get another spell at Pools, not sure it would work out though. When you think about it, the common denominator with Toure and Thomas is Craig Hignett. Whatever his faults as a manager he knew how to coax the best out of temperamental wingers!

Toure being raved about on the Football League show though for his assists and how easy he beats players. All I'm saying is that last night it felt a lot of the time we went backwards rather than forwards. One thing you could never criticise Toure for was he would always back himself to beat players in succession.

Saturday is our first real test for me & think it might be quite an open game. Perfect for the flair players to come forward.

Like I said. Unbeaten start. Best start we’ve had for a while now. That’s something to be positive about. The club moving in the right direction. Good stuff. We could have won or lost last nights game. More often than not in the last five seasons we’d have lost it. That’s not a reason to bring someone else in who can’t settle at every club they’ve been at. And it’s not a reason to start writing players off either. There was a chap called Alan who stood in the rink end in the early 80’s when I first started going and he moaned all through the match, win lose or draw. Mostly losing as it happens but it didn’t help the players. He was always the first to moan thoUgh, so he did have that honour.. Perhaps he had a milk round It’s ups and downs with Pools. I like to be positive when people are trying to do the right thing. Overall I thought we were the better team last night, we had better players but it didn’t happen. We didn’t get in behind them and the quality wasn’t there in the final third. Strikers need the right service. Enjoyed the game though. Seen many poor seasons and poor games over the years. I don’t feel like we are heading for a disappointing season. Hopefully expectation can be built as we progress.

"Go directly to jail, Do not pass go"

Agree. Pools were well on top in the first half and their keeper made some good saves. The second half was a different story, as soon as Altrincham started to pass it around at the back and pushed a few men forward we seemed to lose our way. Challinor won't stand for that and the Torquay game should be a cracker.

Got to take moaning after disappointing games with a pinch of salt - everybody's entitled to an opinion about what went wrong, but the next game is always just around the corner.

How patronising ! What a decent clued up person should do, is take notice of people moaning, listen and look at what they have to say , and see if there is anything that can be taken away to improve things. Its exactly this attitude that sees us in the NL for a 4th season, having been a league 1 club only 8 years ago.

If fans arent moaning after hanging on to a part time team, that's just been promoted, when we are looking to get back to the football league then we might as well just accept any old rubbish in the future. I call it fans wanting the club to do better and having higher standards.Thankfully we seem to have a manager that wont accept 2nd half performances like last night.

We have had a pretty decent start against teams we normally do well against, but standards still need to be raised if we are ever to get out of this league.

I have said it before, our fans are a big part of the problem , blind loyalty is a dangerous thing. Agree though , DC likes me and you won't accept it, I expect there will be changes to the team on Saturday.

You’ve said it before and you’ll say it again I’m sure. We’re in the northern league because we didn’t listen to you horden, naturally. If only we had listened 8 years ago we’d be applying to join the new European super league as we’d have outgrown the premier. Kicking myself now.

Get over yourself man.

Our fans have loyalty and a minority have blind loyalty but how on earth do they influence the club.Mind there are some no names mentioned who seem to enjoy it when things go wrong at the club.

Pathetic response from someone who clearly lost the argument.