While I get the point you're making, I don't think our board are as cut throat as you suggest. It was clear to most of our fans that Rusk wasn't up to the job towards the end of last season, well before you easily dispatched us in the playoffs. He should have gone much earlier than he did this season, but they kept giving him chances.

DC already has more in the bank than Rusk ever managed to accrue with the performances against Bolton and the instant improvement in the league games. When he goes through an inevitable rocky patch, he'll be backed by the fans because he's already given us the confidence that he knows what he's doing.

I realise, from an outsider perspective, it looks like he's moved to a midtable NL team that he's going to have a mammoth task to overhaul. In reality, he's inherited a very strong squad who should comfortably challenging for promotion. I guess the obvious question would be to ask if there's been an issue with player attitude, but we've seen an instant transformation in the style of play that indicates that they were being stifled by the incompetence of the previous manager.

I completely get the strength of feeling, we've had it with players leaving numerous time, Dave Jones going to Southampton and taking some of our best players and with our biggest club legend being sacked last season when the team were in 3rd and improving game by game. It feels very strange to be the team poaching managers and players after having been on the receiving end for so long so you do all have my sympathies.

Well said

PS Can someone change the clock?

You know what I’m getting at, a joke with a dig.

For Stockport, I think this will be a breeze for Dave Challinor and you are correct, your squad is strong and i think he will get you promoted.

From a Hartlepool perspective - this whole situation makes me feel sick. It's not just a case of the manager going, it's a case of a large chunk of our backroom staff going as well. Some of our players are likely to follow, and some after yesterday's performance already know this and mentally have already joined Stockport.

What my club worked for, after a nightmare period (and i appreciate Stockport had a difficult period as well) is being dismantled. And my club, will have to work very hard to stop everything that has been built being turned to rubble.

And that's why there's a bitterness.

And I hope that things at Hartlepool can be rebuilt, but it's very important to get the next managerial appointment correct as it could go either way.

I completely get that.

Fergie was caught out for not tracking back / grafting hard enough on numerous occasions yesterday.

He’s the main one I can see Challinor fancying most for Stockport. Outside of that, Sterry but they have MSH. And then Byrne who fits his system too.

armstrong/oates + the snake + NWC + sterry/fergie =

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyX0UtqbiDI

Ferguson is a very good attacking wing back and a terrific crosser of a ball. He's never been much cop at the defensive side of things and often struggles when Pools are under the cosh.

That was less of a problem in the NL than it is now in League Two.

This is it, the post departure fall out.
As an analogy it was like a much loved father and husband suddenly going off with a rich woman. Everyone was shocked and disappointed, but that’s just the start of the fallout, an apparently ordered/ happy world thrown into turmoil with lasting repercussions.
Some might say a popular mangers job isn’t the same as a husband, fair enough, but the outcome is uncannily similar.
When the tectonic plates of any organisation are moving, the after shocks keep rumbling on and can be just as damaging as the original movement that started this off on the first place.
There is one dissimilarity however between my manager/ husband analogy....no husband was ever thanked profusely for everything he did before the break up and wished all the best in his new life with his new ‘love’.

[quote="Mute Witness"][

From a Hartlepool perspective - this whole situation makes me feel sick. It's not just a case of the manager going, it's a case of a large chunk of our backroom staff going as well. Some of our players are likely to follow, and some after yesterday's performance already know this and mentally have already joined Stockport.

would not put too much on saturdays non performance. if that was the case the whole starting 11 must be stockport bound. anyway they have players who would walk into our side but not sure any of ours would with them.

The nibbling at the foundations of Pools caused by his departure is every bit as problematic as his leaving.
I do wish people would realise this and stop thinking it’s just about good old Dave, thanks for all you did for us, legging it.
Time to get a grip of things management wise and pulling everything back into line.

For some light relief from the misery we all feel..
I went to Woking vs Stockport on Saturday. Obviously annoyed at them losing.. but the Woking fans cheered me up no end with the crowd chanting 'Hartlepool, Hartlepool, Hartlepool' several times. It is not often I'll smile at the memory of seeing us lose 3-0 last season.. but this time I joined in. Cheers all.

Have you thought when we appoint a new Manager the same could apply, ie he or she would most likely bring his assistants and some players with them?

It happens in nearly every new Manager's appointment be it League or Non League - check it out.

That unfortunately is how the World revolves

100% Agree. For what he brings to the side going forwards we sometimes forget how caught out he becomes. There was moments last season i wasnt impressed by his defending and actually thought the arrival of ZFA was to be his end. If He does leave for Stockport then fair enough, ZFA is good enough cover. Its then we need to look at that LCB Position and bring in a highly experienced good player to play alongside Lidds. But my thinking is ZFA is DC's man, hes followed him twice now, its him the more likely to move across to Stockport.

Also have to agree that its much more than just a manager and backroom staff leaving the way they did that affects the players. Its the whole tremors as stated previous that still lay idle in everyones heads as to what is actually happening. Are we on the cusp of an absolutely shocking few months where survival now becomes the forefront on everyones minds. Daves departure seems to have done just that to the players. Fair play to FGR they where the better team and are playing exactly like a top of the league team should be but i fear that there is something else not sitting quite right with the team just now. Tiredness or lack of ambition ? maybe heads are being turned ? is there a lack of something Dave seemed to bring to the team now he isnt here ? The sooner we get a GOOD manager with GOOD backroom staff and start to get this show back on the road the better. We have rarely appointed anyone who has brought with him a band of merry men (in terms of playing staff i mean) so i wont get too excited about that one. January needs to be a good month for us recruitment wise, showing more than ever now.

I wonder if Sterry's sending off (unusual for him) was also a sign of a reaction to the DC leaving. Need a new man in place quick then. I'm sure it's not just DC who galvanise this squad.

The run of bad results in the League started with the shocking 5-0 loss at Orient, which was Challinor's last game in charge and entirely down to him, whether the players were unsettled by rumours or not. Losing to a last gasp winner to Newport was annoying because Pools had enough chances to win the game in the second half. FGR are streets ahead of most teams in the division - the manner of the defeat was disappointing but the result was no surprise.

It's a bit daft to be writing Sweeney off because of one really poor performance given the two games against Wycombe. Let's see what happens at Swindon and Port Vale, currently 3rd and 4th in the division so Pools are on a hiding to nothing and need to battle for 90+ minutes the way they did at Wycombe.

Even if we lose those games, Pools are back to playing sides in the bottom half of the table in December - Rochdale (H), Scunthorpe (H), Colchester (A), Mansfield (A). There's no reason Pools can't finish the year still in a mid-table position, make some decent signings in January and kick on for the rest of the season.

What’s that got to do with anything? In all aspects of life people are really only concerned with how it affects them. If you want to adopt the ‘Softy Walter’ school of etiquette that’s all very noble and considerate, but hopeless and naturally people will walk over you.
If I’ve got a burst pipe flooding the house, what I don’t need is you telling me you know someone who also had a burst pipe and it’s awful...I don’t care, I just want the F@#& ing stop cock turned off and the damaged repaired.
My house, my mess, my problem.
The same thing applies to shafted football clubs.

You have a strange outlook on life and I am not the first to say this

Well after listening to how big a club Stockport County are over the last couple of weeks, especially off their arrogant fans and some inside their club I was shocked to see 294 of them travel to Woking on Saturday, must of missed a zero off.

Good.

brilliant

It was completely obvious Clint Hill was gonna follow DC, it would've felt weird him hanging around anyway when he was clearly tapped by DC to come here in the first place.

Next two games are important as the last thing we need are a couple of drubbings and the lads heads to go down.

12th in League 2. Second round of FA Cup. Imminent managerial replacement. Promise of transfer incomings in Jan.

Keep the faith. UTP.

[quote="Wommers"]It was completely obvious Clint Hill was gonna follow DC, it would've felt weird him hanging around anyway when he was clearly tapped by DC to come here in the first place.

or hanging around to wait for the new man to come in just to push him quickly down the road.

When Challinor brought him in he must have figured highly on his plans, but it was a close run thing between arriving and Challinor leaving.
Just surprised he didn’t follow him out of the door immediately.
I realise Challinor would have had to negotiate these demands at Stopcock, but was Clint sitting in the waiting room at the Vic.

Let’s be honest, it is much better living in Hartlepool than Stockport, the arsehole of Manchester.

Apparently YOU do.
We have a place called the fish sands .... get yourself down there, don’t shave and if possible wear a French uniform.... you’ll be guaranteed a really warm welcome, you’ll be hanging around all night.

Bit harsh that but appreciate your honesty

both towns actually have something in common. shit town centres. apart from that hartlepool wins hands down with house prices about half against a town with only a football ground, a hat museum and a proper main line railway station to recomend it. if you were a player with no real ties then pools should win hands down even with slightly less wages offered.