Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. One day the Vic will be swallowed in a giant sink hole mid match, all caused by your constant whining oscillating the ground to jelly and you will be the only survivor….. what sport will you leech onto after that to moan about…. Squirrel Tennis?

3 games gone with possibly only 2 points less than where i thought we would have at this stage. at least yesterday we scored so must be a positive. a big week coming up for everyone connected with the team. think by 5pm next saturday there could be reasons to be really negative but lets live in hope. its about the only thing left.

accy.."lets live in hope. its about the only thing left."

..for some time now have sort of got the impression you are not the sharpest knife in the drawer...new manager..new team...3 games into a new season ....1 draw and two defeats...and you come up with that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDWulaHN55s

If your happy and content with the way things are going like your pal good for you. I think a few of us have slightly more ambition for the club than just accepting what's going on.

Ambition? ambition for what? You really do sound like entitled Poundland Manc fans.
Try getting behind the team and encouraging them, it’s simple, teams play better that way, negativity never solved anything.
Trouble os from the day Hartley was announced you were on his back back like hyena’s in an abattoir…he wasn’t good enough for your standards and God forbid he was bringing Scots players in who in your opinion via your crystal ball were, unseen, third rate players.
That’s were you fall down, you made your mind up without hesitation based on what? You had nothing at all to go by, no experience of the manager or players, but you ploughed straight in with criticism. No logic at all just…

billy..."I think a few of us have slightly more ambition for the club than just accepting what's going on"..."Until raj allows Hartley to bring in football league quality only one place we are going".

.."accepting whats going on"?....as if you have a clue...raj not allowing hartley to bring quality in?...your "horses mouth" source been feeding you the usual shite i suppose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nYxcmPu2RE

I suspect the ‘horses mouth’ is more ‘Muffin the Mule’ .

Have you seen the standard of which we are getting players from? The total lack of goals in any of the players we are signing. If you can't see the problems lying ahead you really are clueless.

So when you found out we were signing Jocks, did go on Google and tap in furiously Scottish Football Fails… Volume 538 and use that justify your fixation?

billy..."Have you seen the standard of which we are getting players from?"

err...yes....

efl championship..taylor
efl league one....letheren mcdonald
efl league two..meyanese cooke
vanarama national league..lacey sylla ndjoli umerah
scottish premiership..paterson hastie hamilton
scottish championship ..murray tumilty niang

..and so raj is "not allowing" hartley to bring quality in ?....and whats your evidence for saying that exactly?...more of your "gets paid more money at shields" "horses mouth" garbage i suppose?....your problem billy boy is 1.you simply don't know what you are talking about and 2.you get yourself off by making up silly little childish stories and posting them on here...pathetic..

I think it’s obvious we need improvement in results but by all accounts (Blackburn aside) the performances have been better in each of the 3 games. Although after Walsall just playing 2 passes would’ve been an improvement!
I think it’s obvious a few of his signings need time/a loan to get up to speed or are simply not good enough. Hopefully it’s the former and not the latter.

[quote="poolie1"]accy.."lets live in hope. its about the only thing left."

..for some time now have sort of got the impression you are not the sharpest knife in the drawer...new manager..new team...3 games into a new season ....1 draw and two defeats...and you come up with that...

What else can we do though but hope. At the end of the day we are fans and nothing more and have no input whatsoever in stuff like signings or managerial tactics. Once hope is gone the next thing is not bothering to turn up at all. as i said before a ball was kicked i expected nothing out of our first two away games which was no different to last season if you remember. like everyone else i have no idea where this team and manager will end up this season but i have not written em off at all.

You obviously don't have a clue how weak Scottish football is do you? The three Scottish premier league players how many times in the last two or three seasons?

Talking utter rubbish there. I've been right behind Hartley, he is being hung out to dry by raj. Go back and find any criticism of Hartley himself. I've said many times the guy has not been given a chance. Anyone half decent has been sold barring 2 or 3 players and he is shopping in Poundland to find anyone. We can't even fill the bench at times that's pathetic for a football league club.

Where else can we get players from, wi don’t have millions to buy so Pools have to take a chance on who they can get, some times it works sometimes it doesn’t.

Remember people that Poolie 1, Snowy and Derwent are always right and no matter what you say will not change anything. The Bunker has become their Show. Very different from years ago when I first started posting under a different user name.

There is an unhelpful trenf on trying to shut people down which isn't helpful for debate. Trying to prove that some people don't have the expertise or aren't getting behind the manager when those same people go on to criticise individuals in the team in other posts is a wee bit strange. The reality is that the squad we have got is good enough to stay up. Performances to date haven't been good enough. If 6 or 7 players have outstanding seasons we will be challenging for the play offs. That's football. It's pretty much the same every year .We have a reasonable budget we have a manger with experience. I'd like us to sign some more players. If we don't improve quickly I think the chairman will bring in a few more and I hope that clubs in the north can help us out. Be nice to win Tuesday and have the fans behind the team. Have the nwc sorted their differences do we know?

Thanks for the compliment Mr Gee but sadly you couldn't be further from the truth. What I do is give my opinion and that is all. I don't ask anybody to agree with me nor do I expect them to.
I am a moderator on this board and have been for the last couple of years or so. During that time I have not issued one ban. I have warned a couple but that is all. I have deleted a few posts that have overstepped the mark and generally speaking people have responded to that approach.
In two years I have locked one thread whereas, in the era you are referring to, threads were locked quite regularly.
If you've got a problem with me or anyone else, talk it over under the private message route.
Speaking for myself I am always prepared to listen but I will not always agree and If I don't agree I will say so.
Everybody has the right to disagree with everybody else but, at the same time, we all have to accept that others will challenge what each of us say. Some people fight their corner more vigorously than others that, I'm afraid, is a fact of life.

There is an unhelpful trend on trying to shut people down which isn't helpful for debate. Trying to prove that some people don't have the expertise or aren't getting behind the manager when those same people go on to criticise individuals in the team in other posts is a wee bit strange. The reality is that the squad we have got is good enough to stay up. Performances to date haven't been good enough. If 6 or 7 players have outstanding seasons we will be challenging for the play offs. That's football. It's pretty much the same every year .We have a reasonable budget we have a manger with experience. I'd like us to sign some more players. If we don't improve quickly I think the chairman will bring in a few more and I hope that clubs in the north can help us out. Be nice to win Tuesday and have the fans behind the team. Have the nwc sorted their differences do we know?

Football fans love to moan - and some get so entrenched in their negativity that the only sure thing that will make them pipe down is good results on the pitch. If Pools get 4 or 6 points from the two home games this week, most of the heat will go out of this situation. If they get between nil and 2 points it will get a lot worse, but we'll still be only 5 games into a 46 game season. Ever since 3 points for a win came in it's been amazing how quickly an early season run of bad results can be turned round.

Till the team starts getting some consistently good results, all the sarcasm in the world won't shut the nay sayers up.

So why have you changed your name, what’s behind that?
Anyway, if some posters have questionable beliefs they have to prepare to have them questioned.
I have no problem being challenged but some people are not used to being challenged about anything……and tantrum ensues.
I’m still puzzled as to why some people come on a message board and are taken aback by anyone who doesn’t share their viewpoint. Odd.

I suspect you may be referring to me in that comment, but yes I think we can do better than Killip in goal and have said so for two years, just because I want people to get behind the team does not mean I cannot have my opinions about players performances. I backed Lee, but was disappointed with his appointment and it ended in structural failure eventually, but I never came on the board to demand his removal till it was beyond being ignored.
Supporting a team does not mean you can’t have doubts about certain aspects of the team even though you support the bigger picture of the club.

Not particularly you Snowy I just think when someone posts something there doesn't need to be eye rolling or rambling responses ending in ffs. We could do better in every position in the team. But we don't have the budget. I think he is ok and might improve. You don't clearly, but every manager we have had has picked him when he has been fit.

I have this theory that Raj doesn’t actually own the club at all, but is a front man for Killip, who’s a multi millionaire who wants to be a professional goalkeeper and is now living the ‘dream’.
It’s the only explanation I can think of ….
Well, you never know!

This is the crux of the matter and you seem to have the same opinion as me, basically we’d love to see the cash being splashed but we live in the real world. Once you accept that fact you then realise you have to adapt your expectations to your actual circumstances and get behind what you’ve got.
Complaining, niggling, demanding and the like ain’t gonna change a thing because that’s the way it is for now and you adapt or get extremely frustrated…or buy the club.
It’s a bit like being in a rubber dinghy covered in repair patches adrift at sea, far from ideal but keeping you afloat….for now.

I blame IOR for taking us out of our comfort zone, raising our expectations and now we demand better.
Those of us who were brought up on relegation battles, re election nailbiting, the butt of comedians jokes, getting showered in rust every time the ball hit the stands behind the goal, bogs so full of stench with pee slapping against yer boots etc etc, we all got as hysteric as the next man when we got involved in play offs for the championships. Yes we were going to the championship and I am really talking about Pools. It's not a fairy story or a dream, it actually happened .
Then bump, down we came, not only to where we normally were but actually out of the league altogether.
Well, after the most horrific of journeys, we are back in our ancestral home.
Will we stay there, will we get up to league one again, will we challenge for a place in the championship again, or will we go back to (I'm not going to even say the words). Who knows but we are Poolies and Poolies always fear the worst.
From 1952 all the way to 2022 it's been a long ride for me, sometimes a bumpy ride, more downs than ups but I'm still there and just as passionate. What is more If I was taken back to 1952 I would do it all again, warts n all. There is only one team for me, there will only ever be one team for me, until the day I pop it and even beyond that (I hope).
It is a Poolie's right to whinge and moan and we have earned that right but at the end of the day we wouldn't have anything else.
When I sit in my garden watching the white stripes painted by passing aircraft, I think to myself "even God is a Poolie" So all is well.
Never say die.

Watch Switch of Play with Ken Hodcroft about the play off final, ref, stayed in the same hotel as Sheffield Wednesday, the letter which arrived at Pools before the final but no one in the office to open it, it wasn’t opened till after the final.
Hodcroft did say there were big investment plans if Pools had made it to the Championship although I took that remark with a pinch of salt plus Scott wouldn’t have done nought judging by the signings he made.

Aye I have watched it and had discussions with Russ over it. The letter allegedly got "lost" at the FA.

The same people with rambling responses don't mind slating the goalie or name calling the last manager. That's acceptable, well to them it is but low and behold if you question the chairman or the players that are being brought in. Double standards at its best.

Nicely put. Sometimes it's hard not to be nostalgic for the days before social media, when disgruntlement at a poor performance lasted from the walk away from the ground to a good moan over a couple of pints, and not much longer.

billyliar..."Double standards at its best."

..you think slating the chairman as a lying crook is the same as slagging off our dodgy keeper?...double standards? ...you're just not very bright are you mate..

I genuinely felt sorry for Graeme Lee due to the fact that he was trying to concentrate on his job with Pools but then going home to his wife who is battling with one of the worse health scenario's known to man. It was bound to take it's toll. As for the players being brought in I haven't questioned any of them or their nationality/ experience. Lastly, with regards to Raj, I believe he genuinely wants to get Pools into a better place compared with what he found when he saved us from extinction and he has made progress on that
although not as fast as some people want.
I thought i would make my position clear on that.
It is true though that some people take every opportunity to slate Raj and, to be honest, I'm sometimes amazed that he puts up with it. I know the loids hate him to the nth degree but we have no reason to follow them. Maybe the speculation some people have will eventually emerge but I'm not going to slate a fella based on what might happen. I am judging him on his record with Pools and nothing else.

Aye, at 5pm on a Saturday many a cry of "that's it, I'm finished, never again." echoed round the town but it was soon forgotten and back we went for more punishment.
Sometimes a bit of perspective puts things in their place.

Molyneux, Odusina & Byrne all wanted to leave the club, so who else who was "half decent" has been sold? Carver & Ogle were not regulars, so I assume it's neither of those.

The ‘same people’ aren’t zombies, but we are realists when it comes to financing a football club, whereas all you do is hold your breath, get into a tantrum and demand money is sprayed about Willy hilly. Not your money I note.
That’s not the real world.
As for criticising players and managers, we do it reluctantly, but you do it because it’s what you do.
We seem to avoid criticising chairman too unless proof of something comes up (and by ‘proof’ I don’t mean a vivid dream your mate Terry had and passed on) There’s no queues of passing millionaires who want to try your foolproof, guaranteed way way to lose money .. so it’s best to be grateful you even have a club after Coxall, (the Messiah to some) and hope things get better.

Supporting Pools was so much easier if not very rewarding pre internet.

Once again your making it up that I want us to spend fortunes, that is utter rubbish, I want a manager to be given a chance in this league it's not asking for much, a club that had 5500 crowds last year should be able to compete with almost all the club's in this league barring a few exceptions. We have lost virtually anyone and everyone over the last season, Hartley will be gone by Xmas if raj does not give him a fighting chance. How many fans have we lost since last season already 500 or so? You keep saying it's not my money actually fans put a hell of a lot of finance into football clubs, without the fans there would also be no football club. 2500 fans bought season tickets, the most expensive in the league yet once again you and quite a few others seem quite happy to just plod along losing week in week out. That's great if that's your outlook and your happy we just have a club. Thing is you and your mate won't shut the ones up who want better.

As a lying crook? Get a grip. No one is suggesting that. He might of lied about a play off budget but cone on your just stirring the pot with that.

As for being bright you think the Scottish leagues are quality..says it all.

Who want’s to “shut anyone up”….I can’t stop people posting, I have no wish to, that’s their choice.
This is sounding more like paranoia than a footy message board.

What YOU have a problem with is opinions that differ from yours, you can’t cope with things that don’t fit into your viewpoint. It appears to make you anxious and feel threatened when someone is not singing from the same script as you.
I don’t feel that way, water off a ducks back to me, I don’t take these things that seriously.
If you want the perfect message board where every post is in agreement, join the North Korean branch of the bunker, ask for Kim Jong Un, he’ll tell you what to say today.

billy liar..."a club that had 5500 crowds last year should be able to compete with almost all the club's in this league barring a few exceptions."

...bradford city get 15000 crowds and they are league 2 just like us..thats because there is more complexity to the relationship between attendances and footballing success..and also between playing budgets and success ...but you are such a dunce you just can't grasp it...don't matter how many times you are told or by who....all you are ever interested in on here is dishing out smears against the chairman any way you can think of over and over again..but raj promised us he would give hartley a competitive playing budget but he hasn't cos i know jock football is crap like, and the jock lads have all been signed because they're the cheap option...raj has been lying and wont allow hartley the money to bring in the players he wants and the poor bloke is being hung out to dry and i feel sorry for him....raj has sold all our best players cos he wouldn't pay them decent wages and now they're all on more money at clubs like shields...and anyways what has raj done with all the dosh from our cup runs and all that wonga from our big big crowds?....raj has given us the most expensive season tickets in the league but we ain't even got enough players to fill the bench disgraceful tbh for a league club ...blah blah.. blah blah.. blah blah...yep as i say..you're as boring as f/k and just not very bright pal..

Billipooli - it’s not the gate that provides the money to pay big wages and sign players it’s the owners. As stated Bradford have been getting Championship gates and they are still stuck with us yet Forrest Green, Fleetwood, Harrogate, Salford etc barely get 2000 but have big budgets owing to the fact they have rich benefactors. I think Raj maybe we’ll off but just rich enough to keep us going for which I am great full.

So now you’re saying ‘he might of lied about a play off budget’…… silly thing to put in print on a public forum. Oh dear.

I don’t see anything wrong with that statement? He hasn’t said he has lied has he?
Besides I doubt you can argue this playoff budget hasn’t materialised. And no I don’t want the club to throw money around Willy nilly. If this is the budget the club can afford to be run sustainably that’s fine but don’t claim it’s a top league 2 budget

My take on the game for what its worth.
Overall better than I expected, though my expectations were low, but for Hartley to claim we created a lot is worrying. A Number of times there was no one up front to break too, and to play 3 at the back and 2 defensive mids is one defensive player too many.
I don't think the whole season is a write off in terms of relegation, but we are clearly going to struggle and it seems to me Hartley has underestimated the division with his recruitment.
Doesn't mean he should be sacked but how he learns and adapts is key.

Ratings

Killip 6-- At fault for 2nd but can be annoyed at first after 2 good saves
Ferguson 4 -- Poor game but he is a decent player
Sterry 7- Our best player
Menase 6 Best of the center backs and only one who doesn't look piss weak
Lacey 5 - See above on piss weak
Murray 3 - Hopefully he is still nursing an injury as looks way below the standard required
Sylla 7* MOM looks a good player, broke up play very well
Feather 6 Does what he does, don't see how he plays if we have Sylla and 3 at back
Cooke 5 - Obviously a decent player but formation not getting best out of him
Umerah 7 - Be a pain for defenders, think there will be games when refs get sick of him though and he will get nothing
Hastie 3 - Being played out of position but was very poor

Hartley 4 - Not sure what our system is supposed to be, we have 3 center backs, and 4/5 wide players going fwd (understand some are injured) so we are playing 3 at the back ?
Recruitment and tactical coherence not great so far but early days...

Not sure why people blaming Raj, Hartley obviously knew the budget and is backing himself--its really on him.
With the Sage debt I am not sure what people expect, I think we are trying to do something different this year and have put a lot of faith in Hartley--hopefully it works out but it was always going to be a risk.

How can anyone comment on a playoff budget unless they have access to the club’s finances, anything else is imagination and guess work.
Er, whose claiming it’s a top league two budget
Am I talking to two people here, because the above post seems to have crossed over as though Billy is typing it. Very odd.

You’re not wrong no one knows the finances but those within the club but realistically I can only see Murray (maybe), Cooke and Hastie commanding a decent League 2 wage. Umerah was around a 50k fee (I believe I’ve seen?) so is another decent fee but this all doesn’t add up to the play off budget in my eyes. This is my opinion though. If it’s not a play off budget I don’t care it just shouldn’t have been communicated that way.
Is a play off budget not going to be a top budget in league 2 seen as it suggests top 7 at worst?
Is my name different to Billy’s? Then yes it’s 2 different people