anyone else going to this. not making a prediction but have a funny feeling about this game. think we,ll break our scoring duck for a start and you never know.

As you know they have started the season with two comfortable wins and have yet to concede so it seems they will be playing with confidence. Blackburn need to rest some key players and Pools will have to play out of their skins to get any kind of result. Fingers crossed.

3-0 defeat

Hartley said he would be making a few changes from Saturday, I can’t see Blackburn fielding a first team, they will do the same they will give some of their fringe players a run out.

2-1 loss Killip clearance.

i think we will win - just typical Pools - cant get going in the league but will end up putting 2 past top of the league championship side

Hastie to break his duck and someone like Ferguson to get off the mark again from LWB. Crawford to have a blinder and hopefully see what Sylla can do if hes fit.

Changed side and formation - will be calling for the same to be used Saturday only to get beat again - the wonderful world of supporting Pools

Blackburn 0 Pools 1

[quote="Eiphos_3"]i think we will win - just typical Pools - cant get going in the league but will end up putting 2 past top of the league championship side

Hastie to break his duck and someone like Ferguson to get off the mark again from LWB. Crawford to have a blinder and hopefully see what Sylla can do if hes fit.

feel just the same but too afraid to admit it.

Blackburn Rovers 1 Pools 1 (Some Scotsman) 5,490. Pools 341

Anyway of watching. Could only get the Sky game last night..

Bit of an onslaught thus far, my Blackburn 0 isn't looking good.

Half time stats say we have had no shots at all, no corners and 23% possession. Not looking likely. Still only one nil down so hope springs eternal.

2 nowt. Coud be another long 45 minutes like the Walsall game.

Blackburn v Ben Killip at the minute.

2-0 now. I hope the flood gates are not opening.
Now 3-0. oh sheeeeet.

My 3-0 isn’t looking likely either

3-0 and we haven't had an attempt on goal!

We are class and I’m putting £25 on us getting promoted. Don’t you dare tell me otherwise!

I thought you’d left, that’s what you said, but vultures do tend to turn up to cackle.

dogballs.."We are class and I’m putting £25 on us getting promoted. Don’t you dare tell me otherwise!"

...oh f/k...that smell is back again...and how much did your away trip tonight cost you mate..?

That was easy. Goodnight lads.

Way to easy
Looks like the Muppet Show have missed you.

I can’t believe some of the comments on FB, sack the manager was the most common one, bloody hell we were playing the team top of the championship. I can’t believe the negativity of Pools supporters, I do believe some have it in for Hartley because he is from north of the border. Lee was losing games, I believe in the end we lost 11 from 12 games at the end of the season, we were playing badly yet some fans were saying he should never have been sacked.

We were playing top of the championships reserve team. Looks like it's going to be a hell of a long season. It looks hard enough scoring a goal let alone winning a game this season. Hartley will be made the scapegoat for all this. Maybe time for our play off budget to bring in quality league two players and not the bargain basements we keep turning too, be no quick return from non league next time.

Ah the dim apprentice pops up, funny really, you’d been soooo quiet and lost since he went to the rest home to recuperate.
Maybe he’ll take you down the beach later and throw your ball for you to retrieve.

Same old, same old, same old rejoicing in the negativity that’s the trademark of your ‘contributions’.

I certainly wasn’t being negative, I am right behind the manager and the team, it’s a new squad so I don’t expect miracles albeit some do.
Hartley has signed a few players but where is the Recruitment Manager as we need a couple of more players in, does Raj Singh ask him what he has achieved every week. He will be on a salary I assume similar to a player, do we need him, agents will be knocking on Hartleys door every day I would think.

Pains me to say we were outclassed by a good championship team while some were squad players a fit again Bradley Dack would walk into most championship teams. Our forwards and midfield did not seem to have a clue and as a consequence it was all one wat traffic. Here is hoping for better on Saturday when the real first team will be playing.

first half went as expected. them having most of the play and coming off 1 down at half time wasn,t bad. however those 2 quick second half goals killed the game off. the game plan then would have gone with nothing to play for. the highlight was the chant of we,ve had a shot on goal with their fans only waking up once their 4th went in. left early and managed to pick up there local radio station with a post match summery. talk about rubbing salt into a wounded pools as they said the blackburn manager could not really get anything out of the game regarding his players as we were so poor. like me i think they expected some fight. well on to saturday now and see what will come up next.

I wasn’t referring to you Mr J, but the reply to your post. Sorry for any confusion.

If only we’d got through we’d have got……Bradford City away.

well thats saved me a few quid anyway.

Raj Singh had this to say in his programme notes last Saturday: "Chris Trotter has come in and made a huge difference to our recruitment and given us options with different players as and when they become available."

I think it's probably fair to assume Paul Hartley and Gordon Young had a big hand in the signings of players from Scotland because they know those leagues inside out, but Trotter will have had a key role in identifying the likes of Lacey, Menayese, Cooke, Sylla, Umerah and Ndjoli as potential signings. And of course, we'll never know the full story of all the players Pools have tried to sign but weren't able to get over the line!

It's bonkers to be writing off Hartley's whole team on the basis of 3 competitive results.

No problem Snowy, I was seething about all the negative posts on various supporters groups, if Hartley was black people would be shouting racism after the comments directed at him.

[quote="Flying Hogans"][quote="Jamie1952"]
And of course, we'll never know the full story of all the players Pools have tried to sign but weren't able to get over the line!

Possibly thats a very good thing to keep less ammunition from people quick to knock raj and the club in general.

It's got nothing to do with rejoicing what a stupid remark. It's common bloody sense. Allow this new guy a chance let him sign league 2 quality players. Sign a complete squad of players from a lower standard to what you play at and well doesn't take Einstein to work out your going to struggle at times.

We will be back in the conference this season, if we don't start bringing in better standard of players. It's a complete joke how an exciting half decent team from the conference has been allowed to get like this within 12 months.

When you look at it, a football club has three strands.
1. The owner, admin and backroom staff.
2. The team manager and his staff.
3. The players.
Three very separate groups with their own expertise which they stick to.
Yet, the vociferous critics are blessed with the astonishing ability to master all three roles and tell all three groups how to do it ‘proper like’,…. They advocate that Raj just has to throw limitless money at any jobbing league two player passing the ground, the manager has to ‘get it sorted’ and the players just aren’t good enough.
The critics are a completely intolerable bunch of fault finders, know it all’s and grumblers. If they were undertakers ….. people would stop dying. Their thought process for what it’s worth, is like a 5,000 piece jig saw of sand, with the box missing.

Yes it seems like we have gone backwards in the past 12 months.It is becoming something of a complete rebuild after being allowed to deteriorate last season. Hopefully PH will get it right soon and RJ supports him. But be in no illusion if RJ thinks he has "supported" him enough and the results aint going the right way bad stuff will happen.

When it comes to stupid remarks I’m in the presence of a master of the art.
Your ‘strategy’ for success as usual is sign a load of league two players, always the same line, same script and followed up by ‘fling more money at the problem’…
Three, that’s three matches in, you’ve seen the future….. again
From your last sentence it’s fairly obvious there’s tears on your pillow still pining for the loss of Dizzy Dave….cue Cher singing ‘If I could turn back time’…we’ll you can’t, get behind the team or don’t bother.

We weren’t beaten by a good championship team we were beaten by a good championship club. The team had 10 changes from previous game made up with a number of youth players and reserves. The c/back was only 17yrs. I not so much bothered by the result but by the Mail reporter and radio Tees reports thatwe were just totally outclassed.

will never understand fans getting all OTT after a couple of league games and a cup defeat. If pools had been undefeated now the complete opposite OTT comments would be spouted by many. Lets all wait till the end of the transfer window and 10 league games to see how things are really working out. not sure myself how things eventually will pan out and i,ll have to be patiant for a few weeks more. really wish others could be.

Instant gratification Rules OK……..?

8 goals conceded 0 for and only played 3 games I will see into the future here and predict 10 games down the line. Things won't of improved much.

I always relate back to Cloughie, when he was the manager he was in total charge, it’s well known he told a chairman to get out the dressing room. That’s the reason Cloughie never got the England job, the F.A. wanted to keep a hold of reins but Cloughie wouldn’t have it.Now teams surround themselves with unnecessary back room staff, sports scientists, recruitment managers etc.
Maybe at a big club they might be required and they don’t put a strain on the clubs finances but for me not required at Pools.

In 2006/7 under Danny Wilson, after 17 games we had amassed 20 points. We just fell short of being champions but were promoted.
When this seasons fixtures came out I thought ten points from the first ten games would be reasonable. So far we've got one point from two games and have eight games to get another nine points to make the ten.
If we don't sign anyone else and don't reach my target of ten after ten, I will be concerned.
If we do get ten after ten, we have to get another forty points from thirty six games to stay up.
Not massive or startling targets, especially if the squad is improved and starts gelling.
So far we have been beaten once in the league (by a team who have yet to concede a goal and are top of the League) and once by a team in the league cup who are currently sitting of top of the championship.
A bit of perspective is called for.

Happy days eh?…..well for you like…..

I’m fully with you Derwent apart from what I previously said “we were not beaten by a top championship team but by a championship club. May sound Irish but the fact isthis was a reserve/youth team. I accept this was not our full team but from listening to the commentary i worry about our back up players. Still plenty of time to sort it out

so early in the season and the team not hitting full form was there any need to have played back up players. same as blackburn who against another club might have come a cropper. if teams cannot be arsed to play the best side available on the day and had no intention to play them at the outset then allow em not to enter any knock out competition if the club aint interested fully. just because the admission charge was reduced there always feels you have been short changed by the players on offer.

Feel this naming vast team changes started with the premier league teams naming none of
their star players against lesser opposition this has spread to all teams doing the same. To lower league team supporters this should be an opportunity to see the their teams against the stars regardless of the result. It also shows a total lack of respect for for the cup competition.

Agree Mr Essex, shame because once you’d have put out a full strength team against the opposition, but it appears even at our level we’re putting out weakened teams.
Disrespectful to the ethos os the tournament.

Was talking to a blackburn fan before the game. He said there would be loads of changes in their starting 11 and expected us to do likewise. His theory was in these knock out competitions that both sides are selected over the phone by the two managers. he could have a point as its rare to find one side playing there strongest side whilst the other puts out a weakened or experimental one.