0/2 loss

heart hopes for a win but head says i,m being stupid. a narrow 2-1 defeat unless we get a few back who will be really up for it.

Pools to win 3.2.
3789.
UTP

I agree with Bluestreak: 0-2 loss.

Lets hope we are wrong!But my prediction was before Mr Maguire signed.

Pools 3 Crewe Alex 1 Crowd 3,600 scorers anybody will do. Seagull shits on the ref during the silence for HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Based on nothing more than mindless optimism….2-1 win with Maguire to score….fuck it Murray to score too

talking of maguire scoring who was the last pools player who scored on his debut after coming in after the season started.

I know Lance Robson, did it but there must be someone more recent. Err Gordon Watson? Looking forward to other folks replies.

Thats the spirit, a bit of humour! I am going for a Paterson brace.

Nicke Kabamba is probably a good shout. Saw him score on debut at Harrogate in January 2019. The only good thing that happened in a lousy Pools performance.

Surely it was Luke Armstrong - 2 goals against Kings Lynn on his debut.

Sounds right.

I am modifying my prediction.
The arrival of Maguire derails the Railwaymen and pools steam to a 2 /0 win.

need the railwaymen to come out on strike or go on a go slow tonight to give us a chance.

then jump back on your unicorn and ride home.

Ffs no Sylla, Sterry Ferguson or Maguire optimism fading fast…

Why was Callum Cooke giving the Crewe players hugs before the game, whose side is he on?

Perfectly normal these days.

I said before we aren’t going to hold on to many leads with the 2 characters we have at centre half….

I just sat waiting for Crewe to score, hoping they wouldn't score two. Colchester all over again. Four points thrown away from two games. We need to win the next two games to get my minimum of ten points from the first ten games.
Hartley needs to produce a miracle or go home.

Away at Sutton next. Not the fixture to expect three points from. Crewe mid table average side that we had a chance of beating. Ah well, not to be.

I also see Walsall who were getting bigged up
Have won exactly once since they piped us

Things must be bad Mr Derwent if your having a pop.

David Ferguson spent the half-time warm up standing chatting to a groundsman. Not a good signal to send to the manager or the fans but he is obviously completely hacked off to be dropped. Young Paterson did ok but he's no wing back; never got to the by-line once and was sending in crosses from near the halfway line - piss easy to defend against.

Crewe are the worst away side I've seen at the Vic since we were in the National League and we still couldn't beat them. Hartley promised fast, attacking football but there's still precious little sign of that. We are heavily reliant on out balls thumped up to Josh Umerah to battle for.

The old blokes who hated Pools passing it out from the back can at least be happy - the current Pools side isn't skillful enough to risk doing that!

To cap it all, the manager revealed in his post-match interview that Featherstone will be out for 6-7 weeks.

do not know where to start after last nights show. do i blame the players or the coaching staff. thing is with that starting 11 every single player inclding the pair who never stopped go quickly from zero to hero. parts of their game are as good as most in this division whilst other parts of it are sub standard. yoare waiting for a mistake and you know its coming. like the game itself pools were either excellent or shocking for the whole game. then you go to the bench to see the usual fannying about to make substitutions that were 15 minutes too late. get out the spread sheets and laptop out, give instructions as long as monty at el alemain and then something happens. cook goes off holding his left knee. first game back and will he be out now for a period again. tummelty was running on fumes, goes down and then no substitution till they score. its things like that that wound me up more than poor recruitment.

Well no one can really say that things are good.
However My comments are related to what I see and not because of something somebody has made up or guessed what might happen. As I said some time ago I prefer the wait and see stance. I was prepared to wait till ten games had passed but I've commented with two games to go.
I don't defend the indefensible.
Some hard decisions have to be made to turn this around and every option has to be on the table.
I see where we are, now I want to see where we go. Football is a team game but at the moment I don't see a team.

Hartley said they had a sub ready but couldn't get the fourth official's attention because he was too busy talking to the Crewe bench.

Never met a Scot yet who couldn't cut in on a dance!

He took on arguably one of the hardest jobs in English football when he signed up to a threadbare squad that needed completely rebuilding. The resulting recruitment was then slower than anticipated and both Hartley and Singh have said we’ve missed out on many many targets.

Even then though, we do look way off it and a relegation candidate with a chunk of the season now complete.

I’m unsure he knows his best team or formation. The players genuinely looked unfit and also as though they’d set up to defend and counter for the whole second half. Crewe got away with one, that’s for sure.

[quote="thebigdog"]

I’m unsure he knows his best team or formation. The players genuinely looked unfit and also as though they’d set up to defend and counter for the whole second half.
know we haven,t scored many but would love to know the timings of our goals and the times we have conceeded. Some looked played out last night but not all the bench was utilised to the maximum of 5 subs. this fitness issue is as important as the poor results and needs to be got right as its been 2 points gained and 4 lost over the last too games which could be important come next may.

Fuck me, I agree with you. …but I ‘ll give him till the end of October.

I don't blame you giving them 10 to 15 games, it's probobly the sensible approach, for me I had massive concerns pre season confounded by the Walsall match and then a limp game against Wimbledon. We signed basically a team of non league misfits, anyone in that football club must of known what would happen if you went down that route.

The thing that gets me is this team is not fit, half the players are blowing out their arses in the first half, that to me is shocking for a professional football club. The end of the day what's the point sacking this guy? We will wait another 6 weeks for a replacement to once again be underwhelmed, who will then have to work under a man giving him peanuts to achieve almost the impossible, survival.

Hartley ain't helped himself endear himself to the fans but eventually fans have to look at the bigger picture as to why no manager seems capable of bringing in the players he wants during transfer periods, 3 successive managers have moaned about it, one couldn't wait to leave and he was worshipped.

Until a new investor comes in we are on a quick collision course with the national North let alone worrying about the national league. This slump won't stop as quick as it did last time.

If the rumoured targets of Quigley, Rooney & Banks had all come off, it is fair to say our team would have looked a lot more competitive in the attacking sense.

We're suspect defensively - and for all Tumilty's good work last night - he & Patterson are currently a poor mans Sterry & Ferguson in form.

We're reverting to a lot more long ball, maybe not by choice, but because we don't have much else as a pattern of play, quality or even explosive fitness/pace from a player to get us up the pitch. A prime example was when Cooke had yards and yard to run into, but chose to slice a cross-field ball which he completely miscued. There was more examples of Crawford turning back towards our goal, laying it off for a centre back to hit a diag, rather than turning and finding his wing-back, winger or Umerah running behind.

We had Crewe totally sussed, who barely laid a glove on us. We're just not good enough at the moment to beat a team that were asking to be beaten.

[quote="thebigdog"]If the rumoured targets of Quigley, Rooney & Banks had all come off, it is fair to say our team would have looked a lot more competitive in the attacking sense.

possibly other teams missed out on their rumoured first choices also. the squad is what it is and to overcome any failings in the quality it can be made up by us being the fittest team in the league which is far from happening. someone will have the most skillful squad someone will have the fittest. we cannot be the former but certainly no reason we cannot be the latter if things get sorted out.

At the end of the day what Singh thought was a good budget wasn’t with Hartley and the Recruitment person have to look for scraps.Reading all the reports Pools need to decent centre backs. Liddell left albeit slow he was solid, David Wheater is at Darla, 35 years old but could he do a job for us ?

Wheater is still good but is an injury waiting to happen. I doubt he would stand up to full time football anymore. He already struggles with 2 games a week for us and is out injured again.

As for manager getting first choice signings, how many managers get exactly who they want all the time? A good manager will make the best of what hes given. Sounds like you need a Cyril Knowles type to sort you out. He was a magician at turning average teams into promotion contenders.

Cooke patently isn't fully fit; he'll be alright if he ever does get to a decent level of fitness. Grey and Odour contributed the square root of naff all when they came on. Not sure that the manager is spoiled for choice at the minute but refusing to play Ferguson is baffling.

Crawford infuriates me, he patently has talent but these fancy full turns and his naivety at times is irritating.

I couldn't agree with the NWC making him fans' man of the match but he was bright enough in the first half before fading. Tumilty MoM for me for his attacking play in the second half.

Still we've got players all over the pitch - including them two - who are too weak in the challenge against physical sides. Will Umerah and Niang getting stuck in all game be enough against Sutton? Very much doubt it.

think its a case with him of having plenty of talent without having a footballing brain. this shows with the wrong decisions he makes the next time he gets the ball after doing some good stuff. on the plus side he could improve in this aspect as by having no pace that isn,t going to worry him as he gets older as he has nothing to lose.

Raj made it pretty clear in the comments last night where our Dilemma lies - im glad hes been transparent with the fans and is telling us at least something some fans dont seem to already know or grasp. We are where we are with it all. Again i was sold hook line and sinker by what PH was telling us before a ball was even kicked - lovely job this guy seems like he knows what hes doing has had previous success and will probs turn our fortunes back around! (has the CV to back it up). Im feeling like we have been sold a dud just now.

the last 2 games for me have been shocking - Fundamental mistakes i thought we wouldnt see happening at this level - Fitness levels only shown by those that play for the dog and duck on a sunday - its worrying all of this - we even brought in an analysis guy whos job i thought was to make sure everyone is fit and showing no signs of niggles or injuries. There was lads on the park last night for Crewe who walked through our midfield - there CBs where stepping out and galloping past 2 sets of Pools players - it was literally a matter of When and not if their equaliser was going to come - and most around me also knew it !

far too many rookie mistakes being made by this manager at present - by no means do i want him out the door as thats a recipe for absolute disaster (unless pep has a bit of spare time and wants to come show us how to defend and win games) but we must find our best and fittest formation. There is clearly a problem with fitness and surely the management can see that - we need more time without the ball than with it just now in training as certain players shouldnt be gassing out on the 60 min mark after a half time break either its not good enough !

also i must add - Murray is probably one of the worst professional defenders ive ever seen ! clueless in position and doesnt really get stuck in like i thought he would ? what happened to this Captain fantastic of Kilmarnock all their fans was raving about. Have they sent us his twin brother by mistake. Hes woeful ! i said to a lad last night we have either been spoilt with the shear class of what Lidds brought to this back line or he really is just that shite !

Things must be bad Bily.
When your post hasent been by the usual culprits dissected and analysed as club hatemanship.
End of the day whatever other posters opinions and assessments of this horrendous season so far.
Its a results buisness and we need to dig out 12 wins from somewhere to game 46.
Given the clip of our squad its a major ask.
Maybe plan B required:Hope 2 other teams have a meltdown like Scunny last season.
I see they are heading towards a double relegation so respect your post and concerns of the club we love.

Then what.
Ya throw away your rose tinted Specs while drinking early morning coffee.

No, I don’t want to have this morbid phobia with failure that fills your life, I remain a supporter.

I am consistently floored at home shit Murray is, not 1 redeeming quality as a footballer, slow weak hesitant and poor positionally, I can’t recall seeing a player more obviously below the required standard
I would play sylla out of position at center back just to get Murray off.

the bit i have seen of murray reminds me of some midfielder or full back who has been thrown into the cenrtal defence as there was no other alternatives due to injuries. lacey is a bit better but it would not take much to be. possibly just one new decent centre half in from somewhere could actually improve one or the other. at the moment its a partnership thats just not working.

Murray and Paterson will cost us games - weak links in an already weakened armour so to speak.

but yes the man looks lost - doesnt lack the qualities of a CB and somehow has made it in the professional game - im not being funny but ive watched a few Darlo games and Spenny games and Lawlor would walk back into that defence as would some of the NL defenders ive also seen.

we miss lidds and what he brought to the side - need a tough experienced CB with a mouth on him

sterry needs to be back fully fit and Ferguson needs to be back in the side also -

I agree. Ferguson made a right balls-up at Orient and it seems he is serving a penance because of it. About time he was brought back because Paterson wont know what hit him at Sutton. Ferguson knows all about them. We need Sterry back because like Paterson, Tumulty will be blown away at Sutton.

Exactly--not only has our recruitment been poor but its being exacerbated by us not playing our best team...obviously dependent on fitness, but assuming we stick with same formation I would go with...

Killip
Sterry-Menase-Lacey-Sylla-Ferguson
Niang-Crawford
Odour-Cooke
Maguire

Appreciate people may go with Umerah still, and cold make an argument against the 2 behind the fwd butfor the love of god lets play as strong and physical defence as possible against Sutton

there needs to be a place found for umerah in the team if maguire does start. know the mags are not coming in for him with a million pound deal in january but the lad gives it all for me. one of the few who is worth paying to watch this season.