9 August 2003 - Division1 (now Championship)
Walsall 4 WBA 1

I have been a Pools ST for 11 years, but was 'bred and buttered' in West Bromwich. Still keep an eye on the Baggies, but am just as keen on HUFC. Above was the opening game of the season at the end of which Albion got promoted back to the Premier League.

Like many people I feel uncomfortable following Saturday's result but I do think that we have got to wait and see. PH is clearly no mug as a manager and, albeit in Scotland, has a decent record as such. Additionally he has a coach who seems to have a decent record.

We clearly need some more 'proven' players in the squad and if the rumours are correct, more will be added. I also think that we need to give some of the Scottish contingent a bit more time to get acclimatised to EFL2 standard (as opposed to pre-season friendlies); I suspect some of them will and consequently improve; conversely it is quite likely that some will not.

I am not suggesting that we necessarily wait until, say Christmas, but after 10 or so games we may have a clearer picture.

Last season Sutton and Mansfield enjoyed very inauspicious starts in L2 and Notts Forest were in the relegation zone of the Championship for the first several games.

Funny game this football.

We’ll said.

fans just need help from the players to bring them ashore and a win and decent performance on saturday will do the trick.

two points, everyone including a blind dog knew the team was a gamble, but funny how the vast majority forcasted a pools win on saturday. then there is this thing about the standard of scottish football. do not know much about it like the vast amount of others on here, but going from a guy who watches celtic week in week out therefore the other no hopers as well, he says its not the standard but its how the game is generally played is where the difference occurs. could be a case of him being right and our scottish lads may need a bit of adjustment to get things right. that includes PH himself.

I think the issue most people had was that it was incredibly difficult to find any positives from the game. I've been to heavy losses where we haven't looked bad and 90% of the fans have come away annoyed at the result but able to see that it will get better. That game generated so much negativity because there were almost no signs that it can get better but I'm sure across the week more and more fans will remember it's just 1 game and will (hopefully) get behind the team on Saturday.

We don’t have to take any positives from the game, we were crap, we just have to carry on supporting the team, that’s when you need support.
We can all sing when we’re winning, but getting behind a team that needs support is more important.

If you can't "get behind the team", I believe you forfeit the right to call yourself a supporter.

defeats do one thing, it separates the true supporter from the fine weather ones.

Plus the fact that too many defeats get teams relegated and managers sacked.