Playing for Marske United our next opponents, both were tipped for better things, Blackford had trials at Aston Villa, Man. City and Rangers, Simpson went to Preston but has been playing in the lower leagues after leaving Carlisle, both still comparatively young.

Cant quite remember their reasons for leaving Pools.
But all paths after leaving Pools aint paved wirh Gold.
As for having trials for big clubs dont mean jacks
hit.
Funny Old Game.

And Josh McDonald, Mind with a surname like that he,ll be heading back .

I think Connor Simpson went to Preston for £50k.

Yeah, it was at the end of the relegation season if I remember correctly. I always thought him a bit ungainly: tall, good in the air but slow and weedy. Any decent pro CF would have him in his pocket. Clearly years have gone by and he may have filled out but if he is playing at Marske United, it seems obvious he doesnt have what it takes to make a living in full time pro football.

Don't they also have Ryan Catterick and Jason Kennedy?

I can't tell if it shows how good the Northern Premier League has became, or just how poor our squads were in the mid 2010s!

Bit of both.

Wonder how much of that went in the club and not Gary Cocksore's wallet...

I think we can hazard a good guess about that.

Not sure of the ages but Connor may have time on his side.
Football can be cruel.

If they were any good, they wouldn’t be playing at Marske . Just a couple of ex players who never made it, not our responsibility.

If Mr. Monkeybutt was still with us he wouldn't have passed up on the chance to tell us that Pools should never have let Jack Blackford go.

but would his career and simpsons have ended up just the same though. there are hundreds of similar lads across the country who mature quicker than others do and once they get caught up by others just have not got it in em to push that much harder.

I know I’ll take some hammer for this but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Joe Grey follow suit. Whilst Simpson and Blackford did have clubs looking at them I’ve never heard so and so club monitoring Grey,

jon..."I know I’ll take some hammer for this but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Joe Grey follow suit."

...doubt he will go the same way....he now has 50 odd first team appearances despite having an injury which kept him out for quite a while...the other two got nowhere near that and dont think blackford even made the first team.. joe is a better player by a country mile and has a decent chance of making it in the game imo but who knows..my concern is that he is played out of position wide too often which doesnt suit ...and he really needs to get physically stronger to play in his natural position off a central striker down the middle..we shall see..

https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sport/ ... gh-2951368

he is still a young lad and i,d prefer him to be having less starts but playing them all in his natural or preferred position. he may never fill out but that does not mean he wont get stronger.

Surely he’d be better off going out on loan and playing regularly. Pools 1 states he’s played about 50 games but very few are starts so I just wonder how many games has he actually played from the start in the past two seasons.

All forwards don’t have to be 6ft 6 in bulldozers, there’s been plenty of wiry goal moochers down the years doing the business.

there is, but its easier for teams just to lump balls forward or put crosses in from the wings for that type of big lad.

17. That's 15 more than Simpson and 17 more than Blackford. Joe is already an important member of the squad, even as an impact sub.

I’m not saying he’s not better than those two but he is not playing regular football and at his age would maybe be better off out on loan. He is imo too young to be just classed as an impact player. What impact he’s hardly scored. Let’s be honest I can’t see him getting many starts this season unless he’s greatly improved over the pre-season. Let’s see what Hartley thinks he obviously knows more about football than me.

I wonder where that lad that bullsh*ted us and went to Fulham is now?

He was released by Fulham, no idea where he is now.