Like ourselves these boys very much on the up, unbeaten in 5, 3 wins 2 draws. Very much the typical NL mid table club in recent seasons , who flatter to deceive, going on good runs and threatening the play offs , then bad runs , dive bombing towards the bottom of the table.

Not so much a battle and roll your sleeves up type of game like Weymouth or Dover, Eastleigh might allow us to play football, but a difficult game against a well balanced , organised , not conceding many goals of late side. Everything suggests a tight game, with no more than 3 goals in it. I would take a draw now, but a win would be a great scalp.

Eastleigh 1 v 1 Pools

Shelton

Hard game this one

Eastleigh 2 Pools 0

think pools will win but going to going to predict a 3-1 defeat.

Ditto with Mr. Accrington

Seen Pools down there a couple of times now and not had a win. A team we've not done well against.

1-1 and will be happy with it.

Just checked the signup for their stream - £7.99 for the match. Don't forget it is a 5pm kickoff. Beer followed by pancakes.

1/1 Oates

Eastleigh 1 Pools 1 Johnston.

Oh FFS!

Ditto, here we go!!!

2 attacks, 2 goals. WTF.

Ditto FFS! At least the video stream was cheap. Beer time

Doing my rain dance now! Considering whether to carry on viewing or watch Pointless. Either way, same outcome

Let's just hope for floodlight failure or a meteorite strike.

Anyone enjoying pancakes?

Test of character now. Pools haven't managed a fightback for a result all season. No time like the present.

enjoying smashing up a spitfire airfix kit better.

Killip's mistakes cost us any chance of a play off place last season and it's looking the same this season. First goal was a joke, second a header from a corner inside the six-yard box!

need an early second half goal.

Don’t forget to put a gloss coat on that model before the transfers, otherwise the backing film will show. Lockdown hobbies.

Thanks for the advice but it's been like that for 3 years. It's really something I should have sorted by now.....

Having a poor keeper catches up with you eventually, let’s be honest this team isn’t anywhere near good enough to win any league, done amazingly well to be 3rd with some of these players.

Good goal from Grey.

Killip is a liability, always will be a liability but beggars etc etc.

Yes thanks. Made my own, very nice, even if I say so myself

Looks like we have been overachieving of late. Was always going to be a difficult game tonight, 2 down early doors I'm surprised we never capitulated, so that's a positive I suppose. Killip isn't good enough I think most of us agree on that, but he's much improved this season, but all keepers have a mare from time to time, just got to look at the Premier League this season to see that. I think he hasn't been as exposed as much this season due to having a good defence in front of him. Defence was poor tonight, midfield non existent, forwards isolated and Holohan and Oates continue to compete for who is the worst in front of goal award, and Killips flaws are exposed.


The Joe Grey fan club are happy tonight

We have done well lately , so not going to get downhearted over this one bad result, but its away games like these and Weymouth , and Dover, Dagenham and Halifax to come , where promoted teams pick up points or at least don't get beat. In the meantime a lot of pressure on us now to keep our home form going, defeat to Yeovil would really put a dampener on things.

Can't imagine that lumping the ball forward was DC's instructions. Looked like a poor pitch on which to play football but we are going to encounter this kind of pitch over winter, & have to grind it out. Not blaming White, but Featherstone was missed tonight as he would have played passes instead of setting up head tennis.
Forwards got no service, & we may as well have played 5-0-5 formation if intent on largely missing out the midfield.
Not sure if Johnson was equally to blame for the first goal, as it was too early to see if the ball would run on that surface. Just put it into touch or in the stand if Killip's dithering
Camera work was poor; insufficient use of the zoom. A magnifying glass would have been useful

It was a poor pitch, apparently Yeovil complained about it last week. It horses for courses though, as Eastleigh are using it to their advantage , just as we probably do the same at the Vic on our all singing all dancing pitch. With that in mind ( the pitch ) and Featherstone missing, I think DC probably did try something different tonight, and it failed. Looks like we are a one dimensional team, that can only play one way. Playing one way might be enough, sure there are plenty of other teams in our division who can only play one way as well , but having the ability to be able to mix it up, on heavy pitches etc is where promotion is going to be won or lost.

To be fair to DC he has alluded to this many times in his post match interviews. I would imagine secretly he knows this is probably beyond the current squad, that is lacking physically, short on leaders, and not many players who are good in the air.

Awful performance
Awful pitch
Final Result Spitfires 2 Mansfield Town 1 (The Stags)

Just getting mistook for Mansfield gives me the sudden urge to have a shower.

Holohan had the best chances but he has mislaid his shooting boots this season, which is a worry. Not sure that he brings enough to the team if he's not scoring. I'm disappointed but not surprised that Pools failed yet again to overturn a deficit. We're in trouble every time we go behind in a game, which makes it too easy to slide into a poor run of results. There's nobody on the pitch to gee up the team when it matters.

I predict Pools will finish the season with Ravas as the regular choice in goal. It might not happen for a couple of weeks as Killip has had a decent run in the side (with very little to do in most matches) but it will happen.

I think we played like a bunch of useless Stags . What does it take to get Killip out of the team. Both goals down to him. We now gave Brad Young back so there are two alternatives, both better than him. Oates Holohan and Shelton complete bollocks tonight and ready for some bench warming. Where was Luke Williams?

After that poor defeat had 12 pancakes made per the Delia Smith cookbook. Served with lemon juice and golden syrup washed down with a couple of glasses of white per the instruction of Keith Floyd.

In his post-match interview Dave Challinor holds Ryan Johnson to account for both goals - no criticism of Ben Killip at all. He also makes it clear that he won't be rushing Joe Grey straight into the starting 11 - good as he thinks he's going to be in the future.

yes the only highlight. some have blamed the tactics used but it was defensive mistakes that cost us. pools were the far better side apart from in two areas of the pitch, the penalty areas. i,d have put bloomfield on straight after half times as oates just wasn,t getting into the game as usual and grey a bit earlier as well.

and brought back memories of being arrested there before i actually got in.

Apologies to anyone who didn't get The Stags horrible Mansfield Town FC label. For anyone who didn't see the live stream the commentator kept referring to Pools as The Stags. Don't they or didn't they play in some horrible yellow strip as well?

The first goal Killip came out and hesitated and failed to clear the ball. The second goal he awas rooted to his line as their big striker headed home a corner. Most unfair to blame Johnson for the goals.

Even though the 5-3-2 formation has done us wonders recently, I believe the two recent away losses could have been avoided if we'd went with a more attacking formation from the start. Even with the injuries and suspension this could have been an option.
Playing the 5 across the back was perfect for teams like notts county etc, and would have stopped the 0-5 drubbing off Torquay.
Playing tinpot teams what are more than winnable we should revert back to the formation used at the start of season (which also got us wins) and change game-by-game, depending on how tinpot we rate them.

Formations don't win and lose games, players do. Our problem is we need to create 10 chances to score 1 whereas other teams seem to create 5 chances and score 1. Our goals generally come from only 3 or 4 players, Armstrongs goals have papered over a lot of cracks.

just how can you class these teams as tinpot when they have players that would get into the current pools side and have not dissimilar records to us. pools must also be tinpot as they are playing at the same level.

Definition of tinpot club = people getting paid part time money for full time commitment

Definition of professional club = people getting paid full time money for part time commitment

that cerainly made pools very professional pre challinor for years.