Bromley 1 Pools 3

The Pool go marching on UTP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



P.S Come on Chesterfield and Altrincham

Tough one this. Win this one and I will start believing that we can finish top.
Bromley 1 - 2 Pools

2 nil Oates and Armstrong.

Bromley 0 Pools 1 Featherstone

Chesterfield 2 Torquay Utd 1 late 100th minute goal
Stockport County 2 Wealdstone 7

bromley 3 pools 0. not going to watch it either. really bad feeling about this one.

Anyone know the cost of todays live stream?

Away win and Torquay draw.
UTP.
And Sutton draw at n county tomoro.

Donaldson starts!!!! I might have to rethink my prediction, I hope not.

Harvey Saunders starts too. Oates and Molyneux on the bench, Cass not risked with his sore knee.

It's a bit hard to figure out how this 11 can play in Dave Challinor's usual formation unless Sterry plays as one of the centre backs with Donaldson as wing back?

well i am. 4 nil to bromley now. just hope he keeps up his usual record or kicking the ball less than our keeper will.

Bromley deserve to be in front on the balance of the play but the conditions don't suit Pools' passing game at all - blowing a gale and the ball bouncing around on their ping pong table of a pitch.

Odusina is getting riled by one of their players and has had a long talking to by the ref - maybe best to get Francis-Angol on second half. Saunders and Armstrong have worked hard without creating an opening and Donaldson has been responsible for most of what little threat Pools have mustered - a shot turned round the post by the keeper and a few dangerous crosses.

There was the chance to equalize - great double save from their keeper but Armstrong should have done better.

1-0 defeat and Liddle sent off. Given the other scores it’s play offs for us.

Looks like Boris gave us some good luck!

There is no disgrace losing 1-0 at Bromley. The disgrace is the dropping of points to very poor sides earlier in the season.

Couldn't have ended much worse from a Pools point of view.

It's bad enough that Pools played a 4-4-2 for the first time in months. Bromley got plenty of men forward and without the extra cover provided by a third centre back Pools struggled defensively all game. Liddle was our best defender by a street, but got caught out of position twice late on, 2 yellow cards and no argument about the sending off.

So, risk a half-fit Richardson against Maidenhead on Saturday or try Francis-Angol or the forgotten loanee Jake Cooper? Don't see how either of them can be properly match fit and Challinor obviously didn't fancy them for this game.

Donaldson was probably Pools' man of the match. He had three shots on target, their keeper spilled them all and Armstrong should have profited from the second one.

First defeat in 15 games so we drop down to 4th. What a bar steward this league is....

A really disappointing result .
But let's rewind back to mid November.
The way DC n the lads have responded to that has been outstanding.
Looking like a home game in the Quarter Finals .
Then hopefully the promotion dream is
Alive n Kicking.
UTP.

Who the fook is Richardson?

Bromley goalkeeper MOM.
Like I said the other day, injury to Cass is worrying. Our defence is below par without him and now we lose Liddle for the next match.
The similarities to the Weymouth game were uncanny.
The guy who headed in for Weymouth had a dress rehearsal earlier before he scored the only goal and the same thing happened today for Bromley's goal. We couldn't score at Weymouth, despite chances, and the same at Bromley today. We had a man sent off in both games.

We are probably heading for 4th place now at best. If we win the first play off game we are probably away to one of the current top three. Unless one of them has a catastrophic last few league games, thus presenting third place to us but I think we have to win our last four games to make that a possibility. Pools beating Sutton and Torquay beating Stockport would be a great help.

The most difficult problem facing promotion from this league is there is only one automatic promotion spot, something which I think is totally unfair and out of keeping with the four leagues above us. It is only comparatively recently that the single promotion spot was enhanced by having play offs. At the other end of the table four teams are normally relegated.
I think at least another automatic promotion place should be added, perhaps even another two, giving three automatic plus one playoff promotion places, exactly like Div two.
If we are going to have a pyramid then let's have a evenly balanced one.

Errr... that'll be my code name for Ryan Johnson.

Yes agree

Donaldson had a decent game, but I think his wide position prevented Sterry from making his runs down the wing, although partly due to playing a back four. In his post-match interview was Challinor critical of his decision to change from playing a back three which has served Pools so well ? One might have thought Francis-Angol or Cooper would have slotted into the back three, otherwise what cover have they been signed for ?

Ultimately the Ryan Johnson injury has probably cost us an automatic spot, for all that Gary Liddle and Timmy have played well they just aren't a threat from corners that Johnson is, also would we have conceded against the big guys with him in the team, we don't seem to possess a natural replacement for him, hope he's fit for the run in.
Sounds like Cooper was a panic buy as cover.

In his interview on Radio Tees Dave Challinor said that the changes he made to the starting 11 "allowed us to keep our shape," which baffles me because that implies Sterry replaced Lewis Cass in a back three with Liddle and Odusina. If that was the plan it didn't work at any point in the game. Just as well Pools kept attacking in the minutes after Liddle got sent off, because Odusina was the only true centre back left on the pitch.

Not having Cass or Ryan Johnson in the team was fatal against a decent Bromley attack in those conditions. They should really have scored more than one, Ravas did well to keep us in it. Cass should be back for Saturday but I wouldn't play Johnson unless he's 100% ready - it's odds on now that Pools are going to be in the play offs and I'd rather have him fully fit for those games.

would not risk anyone at this stage of the season playing if not 100 per cent fit even with liddle out. there are much bigger fish to fry later in the month. last thing we need is a player breaking down with the play offs only weeks away now. realistically is now play offs or nothing. i,d rather drop points on saturday than players being out for the season.

there are going to be a couple of sides who will feel very dissapointed when this season if finally over. lets hope pools are not one of them. the inquest is sure to start if this does happen. dropped points when we were in the lead and losing to shit sides we should have beaten on the day.

I stated early in the season that my biggest worry was "what ifs" and we have just crept a little closer to that scenario.
However we can still be promoted so we have to be positive about that and believe we can overcome the lottery of the play offs.
We can do it.
Promotion is still within our grasp The owners, management, backroom staff, squad and fans need to keep every sinew stretched to fulfil that dream.

Let's look on the bright side. All unbeaten runs come to an end and I'd rather it happened now than in the play offs.

Precisely. It's still (nearly) all to play for. Stockport v Torquay a week Saturday will probably decide the title.

Notts County play Sutton at 5 this afternoon. County have been useless lately but they really need a win to have any chance of making the play offs. The game is live on BT and I'll watch it more in hope than expectation - if Sutton win it's odds on we'll miss out on a top 3 finish, even if we beat them later on on their artificial pitch.

On the bright side, Pools have beaten all the sides in the top 10 and can do it again in the play offs - over 3 games if need be.

If pools finish 4th which is looking likely we play 7th at home and if we win, we play 3rd away which is probably going to be stockport.

If we finish 3rd then we play the winner of 4th v 7th at home
If we finish 2nd we play the winner of 5th v 6th at home

Notts Co have just scored in injury time to lead Sutton 3-2.

[quote="poolie"]If pools finish 4th which is looking likely we play 7th at home and if we win, we play 3rd away which is probably going to be stockport.

need to avoid stockport away at all costs. with our record there and bennett in their side we all know the likely outcome. he,ll get their winner in torquay time.