National League standard game today between two sides that could well be back in that division next season. Pools gifted Harrogate the win with some ridiculously bad defending for their first goal. Even when Umerah pulled a late goal back there was never any real belief we would get a point.

Leaving the ground there wasn't a lot of love for Keith Curle. One bloke even said he thought Pools played better football under Hartley! Hope he was joking, but today was a must not lose game that we never looked like getting anything from.

Pools are bottom of the table tonight. Curle's record since he took over is W1, D2, L2.

Admittedly, he inherited a really poor squad. Neither of the 2 centre backs he had to play today are good enough for this division. I'm just not convinced his blast-from-the-past style of coaching is going to turn things around.

Robinson and Umerah spent a lot of the first half 20 yards in front of the nearest midfielder, chasing high ball after high ball. Things got a bit better 2nd half as Cooke and McDonald are half-decent footballers, but it was still hard to see any pattern to Pools play.

Teamwork was in very short supply and so was team spirit. The players hardly open their mouths except to complain at each other when a move breaks down or a goal is conceded. When Harrogate were down at the Poolie end 2nd half, their big centre back McArdle never stopped shouting instructions and encouragement to the rest of the defence and they had other players who were really vocal too. Ferguson may as well be mute for all the talking he does.

To cap it all, Tony Sweeney wasn't at the game today.

Lose against Swindon, Salford and Grimsby and Pools will be looking up at a decent gap to 3rd bottom before the World Cup starts, never mind the next transfer window.

I think we’d have had more hope with Sweeney.
Having heard a few of Curles interviews he appears to be operating on another level, very vague and seems distant a bit other worldly.…. Not saying it’s a good thing or a bad thing, just my opinion.

Would take 4 pts from them 3 games.
Then its Stevenage n Barrow away.
Need a minor miracle to avoid the drop as i aint pinning any false hope of the January Sales rescueing us.
What will be will be.

Honestly don't think anybody would do anything with the shite hartley signed from scotland

In the Summer, Hartley disposed if nearly an entire squad then brought in a number of 2nd and 3rd Level Scottish League players and National League players from here. We looked certain to be involved in a relegation battle just looking at the squad. As time moved on we added McDonald who has probably been one of the 2 best signings and can't even get into Curle's starting team, hopefully an injury but I doubt it.

Signing so many players you can get lucky with some - Umerah the obvious example, Menayesse is a much missed player the last few games and Sylla and Niang have shown flashes but perhaps only the first 3 of those and McDonald are essential. The rest have faults that suggest we will continue to struggle.

It was disappointing that he started with Robinson today who hasn't played a game for nearly 6 months. Curle used his first few games to test his squad out rather than watch videos? But to be fair to him he has ,ade us look dangerous with actually having a few shots now. Perhaps his top claim is Hamilton, who looked terrible until Curle came. In those 2 games he played he started to win headers and create a few things and looked good to help Umerah. Then he came off injured and with McDonald off we fell apart. There are too many players at the bottom end of this level or below. Curle needs to show he can choose his best team and maybe inspire Grey back to a bit of form and steady the defence a little.

Well said Snailwood2. If Ferguson and Sterry rediscovered some form then things might look brighter. Joe Grey comes on and tries to take their defence on without support. I suppose Keith Curle will think that's it and the lad will want to leave as well. Josh Umerah is the big fish in the little pond at the moment and thanks Josh but sooner I suspect he will be sold if he doesen't lose interest before then. I bet I wasn't the only one today who wished that Luke Armstrong had signed permanently for Pools. Imagine him supporting one of our big guys up front? I think it was said on here by someone else and if so, sorry for pinching your suggestion. It's great when you play early and win but f*****g awful when you lose. I suppose Keith Curle will completely change the team against Everton wannabees and possible one or two of them will shine and then play no part at Swindon (horrible place thank you for your railway history and Don Rogers aka 1969, but still a horrible place. As for Pools midfield or lack of it, any ideas Snowy and the rest of you?

Josh Umerah is 4th top scorer in League 2 with 7 goals from 13 games. Luke Armstrong has 1 from 13. Funny old game.

Theo Robinson looked useful today and fit for a man who hasn't played all season. Can't understand though why getting in an experienced centre back isn't a bigger priority.

Hartley didn’t dispose of nearly a full squad, the players left because they were offered better terms and conditions which Pools wouldn’t match.
I think the Owner was out of touch along with Hoban how much funding was needed to strengthen the squad and Hartley decided his only option was to sign players on the cheap hoping it would work, quantity rather than quality, unfortunately it didn’t work out.
If I was Singh I would use the rest of the budget if there is any left to bring some one like Danny Wilson in.
Curle I think it’s obvious we need central defenders but he signs a striker ?

actually both lacey and murray were far from being pools worst p;ayers yesterday. neither goal came from their errors. take out josh then its 4 goals scored across the rest of them. surely bang average midfielder should be chipping in with 5 or so during the season. the gap between the front 2 yesterday and the mid field was terrible in the first half. they made as many mistakes as pools did but were unable to capitalise on the situation. when you have crawford and shelton statring and finishing games you are bound to have a problem. as someone else stated the game was non league standard and it was a robbery if either side gained 3 points out of that. got sick of the wind being mentioned as it hardly made any difference for me.

The wind? Never even noticed it. It's 10 times worse at the Vic.

Everybody is saying why hasn’t Curle signed a central defender. That’s easy to answer. Where do you get an experienced centre half who is out of contract and of course is any good?

Yep, can't argue with that. It's not like quality centre backs grow on trees.

and even if they were it still would not help one of the worst central midfields in football.

That's not the whole story either. Players like Bogle, Byrne and Holohan were allowed to leave while they were still under contract at Pools on 'compassionate' grounds - either to get more first team opportunities or to be closer to home/family. All of them would walk into our current first team.

Lee has to take responsibility for Holohan as he was frozen out of his first team to accommodate mediocre loan players, but which bright spark let the other two go? Pools at least found a like for like replacement for Bogle, but Lacey is a very poor substitute for Byrne. No idea why he wasn't just told to see out his contract - Liverpool isn't exactly the other side of the world.

It’s all very depressing. At 1-0, Umerah had a glorious chance to equalise and missed. The second killed it dead. One of the worst away atmospheres I’ve been in. Could hear a pin drop. And those who waited to clap the players off, did so in a zombified fashion, which is the effect that 90 minutes had on me and those left at end. Of course, a couple of wins could change everything but…………

Replacing the creativity and goals (admittedly they were in short supply last season too) of those who left and the better defenders - to stop more balls going into our net than last season - we had, was always going to be a challenge. You only have to look at Notts Forest to see that 0 continuity and vast amounts of new signings is never a recipe for success. Hartley has done a ‘Falkirk’ and - without being too defeatist - left us relegation bound, excusing a miracle.

It begs the question why other teams seem fine retaining their better ones, whilst we stumble upon a few good’uns who inevitably leave. For all the new signings, the squad still looks light and completely without balance. The defenders situation is nothing short of Sunday League. When we were signing players willy nilly in the summer, I said let the footy do the talking. None of them came with pedigree for the division we play in. It could take many a transfer window and seasons to sort this… given we changed tact this year and handed everyone 2 years. Which is the right thing to do by the way… but not when you sign unproven gambles. Gamble was the word of pre-season for me…

Fergie has also gone backwards, but was being directed to hold the ball forward by those in dugout yesterday. Lacey and Murray… it can’t go on. Letting the ball bounce, missing second, sometimes even third contacts. I actually had to laugh at some of the ineptitude on show. Players were booed off at half time, which obviously doesn’t help, but when you look at how the fans rallied around after the Doncaster game, we’re all just looking for something to support and get behind. I can’t look at this current Pools team and compare them to any over the past 10 years, I don’t have a fave player (bar possibly Umerah and Sterry) and I imagine if we are relegated all those signed will leave without a care (cos why should they give a sh!t, they probably regret ever signing for Pools now PH has gone), as we look to pick up the pieces from what will be a catastrophic and permanent return to the National League. There’s more to life than football - but good grief - a return to that disgrace of a league would leave me questioning the ‘fun’ (think Snowy nailed it when he mentioned this before, it’s supposed to be fun!) of travelling and going to the games. Poolie til I die, but summats got to give.

The players also hardly talk, unless it’s to throw their hands and have a moan. He’s an irritating little sh!t but their captain Falkingham was barking orders, not excusing sloppiness and generally being louder than all our team put together. They also had MCardle at the back, organising and generally being a nasty bugger to all those around him.

Of course - ‘we know where we are’ - and the likes of Oates, Odusina, Byrne will all go for better money and more ambition - but the acceptance of failure, the inevitable bending over when we face a team on a 10 game winless run, the rank bad performances from a certain few (Paterson yesterday in 1st half, Killip making errors for goals), has to stop. A 21 game winless streak… 1 win now in 22 (I think)… this goes deeper than the person stood in the dugout and facing press questions. The club has lost all sense of its standards in terms of what is happening on the pitch since Dave Challinor left, it’s brutal. We are experts in failure.

All true enough, and there may be an element of desperation in me worrying that Keith Curle might not be the new Ronnie Moore who will dig Pools out of the crap when all appears lost.

If the board felt like taking a leaf from the current government's contrition over bad decisions they'd have plenty to apologise for:

Taking a month to find a replacement after Challinor walked then opting for someone who had never managed at National League level never mind EFL 2 - presumably because he was one of 'our' (and Boro's) own and not likely to use his family's homesickness as an excuse to leave!

Taking another month to replace Lee then picking a Scot who had never managed at any level in English football, based on a second-hand recommendation. A manager that the chairman admits he'd never heard of!

Not going to get into the argument about playing budgets because we're never likely to know what the truth is. It's fair though, to worry about a degree of complacency, given Hartley was allowed to sign too many players who knew as much about the standard of EFL 2 as he did.

Finishing the job of dismantling last season's squad while Pools were struggling to field an 11 plus a couple of subs for pre-season friendlies was a disgraceful state of affairs.
We've been trying - and largely failing - to play catch up ever since.

The club seems top heavy on advisers and ‘inputters’…… how about dumping them, save the cash, give it to the manager and let him spend it on players.
Of course it’ll never happen, but the only part of the club apparently thriving is behind desks and screens.
So disappointed.

That's the bit that confuses me. Raj gets given the tag of being miserly and yet gladly finances this multi tiered back ground. It doesn't make sense. I'd like to know the lines of questioning from the recent fans forum but it has all gone quiet on that front.

still think that all the decent players who have left since we gained promotion would have stayed if their money was right. i,m sure armstrong would have signed also if we had matched harrogates offer. you can deal with players moving on up the leagues but not sideways or in holohans case at the time backwards. just wonder where we would be in the league now with these lads as well as a couple of thousand extra on gates. how many others at our level have lost as many players who did like the ones we had.

I agree. Raj has set whatever budget he set and by the looks of it there hasnt been enough in it to keep certain players. Of course I can't make him spend his own money and he'll have to balance the clubs income against expenditure but I think its the wrong approach, if indeed his approach is what it seems to be looking from the outside. We need income from gates and that only happens if we are competitive. We also need money from players leaving, rather than them going for free. That involves keeping them under contract.

Maybe the budget was indeed OK this year and just wasn't spent very wisely. The players who left just fancied a move. I do not know.

We are always told how hard it is to attract players to the north east, so when they do agree to come in the first place we need to be putting ourselves in pole position to resign/ sign loanees who we know strengthen the team. Especially when the player is only making a sideways move.

I did'nt expect us to be challenging for promotion for some time, as we are anchored down with the Sage debt we are still paying off, but if we cannot even put together a mid division league 2 team after coming off the back of what must have been one of our most financially successful season in eons (cup runs, very good attendences, sold a few players, compensation from Fulham) then cannot see us getting promoted back to the FL for a long time if god forbid we do end up being relegated this season.

I suspect we could have put a reasonable league 2 side together and we had the time with Lee’s early departure, but the Hartley saga dragged on and when he did arrive it was quantity over quality….result plenty of options, but most of the options are crap…. result, misery.

I really don't know what people expect from Curle,he's only been here 4 weeks & he's taken over a team full of dross. Hartley had 6 weeks to prepare a team & gained 4 points from 9 games,while Curle has 5 points from 5 games.
Yes the football isn't great,but it is an improvement under Curle,whether uys enough,who knows.

Getting something from the Harrogate game was a long way from mission impossible for a side that was genuinely improving. 5 points from a possible 15 is still relegation form, that's why Pools have gone bottom.

I really hope that the Doncaster result wasn't a flash in the pan. We'll know soon enough.

Noticed Curle is quoted as wanting players in defence,midfield and in goal. No surprise there but mentioning goal was a little unexpected. However whilst Killip has done reasonably well this season the last two games he has conceded five goals all of which in my opinion were clangers or saveable

I am getting worried about our position. Can someone please send cash to console me?

Johnny or Pat…oops Johnny’s been deleted as he’s dead…so, Pat it is….OK to leave him behind the wheely bin if you’re not in…?

No doubt Killips been player of the season so far.
Hes had more to do due to our weak as piss midfield n defence.
Add in hes prone to clangers its a recipee for disaster.

surely with this season affecting our mental health the government should step in to protect us all. oh i forgot we haven,t one.

From the sound of things Kyle Letheren is doing a decent job as goalkeeping coach but is he a serious contender to take over from Killip as as No.1? There needs to be competition for places throughout the team, but if Pools sign any more free agents the immediate priority has got to be a centre back. Featherstone sounds like he's not far away from coming back in midfield; hopefully Senna too.

Trouble is with featherstone is that he had a mixed season last year and a year older. would not put too much faith in him turning that midfield around but hope i,m wrong.

We could ask Mcsheffery if he wants a job he didn't do that bad at Doncaster better than Curle with us have to give him a decent wage though.

Think KC just needs a few more tools, And we will see a marked differance.

If KC stays the full season and we finish anywhere above 23rd thats a major result giving the clip of the current squad.

There's half a dozen absolute tools in the squad already - Gawd help us if we sign any more

Blunt tools!!!

I was going to make a "tool" comment, but others have said it a lot better than I could.

Let’s hope they’re rechargeable.

Limp!

After tonight I don't know whether Keith Curle has lost the dressing room or never found it. Pools weren't ready to compete either at kick off or after whatever was said to them at half time. Eddie Kyle summed it up in the second half: "Total lack of leadership on the pitch. And off it."

He's been dealt a bad hand taking over that squad but has done nothing to change its mentality or improve the coaching. Hoping for a miracle on Saturday or Pools will get another hammering.

Doesn't matter who the coach is, if the players are that bad he can only do so much. Nothing happening at the moment is really KC fault, he gave fringe players a chance tonight and they all embarrassed themselves along with the football imposters at centre half! Doubt he would play many of them given a choice.

I feel he is trying all options but the squad has holes all over it. Was it him who intended to only to be interim?

He certainly hasn’t improved things. It’s easy to say it’s not his fault but he’s had 6 games now. He picked tonight’s team and got it wrong big style. Him and the players disrespected the fans, the badge and the competition. You have to wonder if we’d ever watched the opposition. We are looking unprofessional in virtually every aspect of our game.

League 2 is a much better standard than it was last year too, so the extremely apparent downgrade of players we have been delivered by those in charge is going to relegate us.

The transfer policy stood off a mile. The delay in signatures. The inability to have a normal pre-season. The gamble on every signing we made, the gamble manager. The stripping of all our best players from last year.

For me, Raj and his merry men need to hang their head in shame tonight for yet another embarrassing stain on the reputation of this football club. Shambles.

I don’t think that it’s a better league. We are lucky that there are a load of bad teams. To be three points below 16th place shows just how bad it is.

I think you will need more points to survive this year and the top will be tighter.

If you think of all the targets we missed out on as well. Just what standard were the deals we were handing out and how far down the priority list were the f@ck ups we got left with.

Think Curle was taking a dig at Hartley in his post match interview about the players brought in during the summer.

And rightly so. Hartley has signed some players based on the fact that they've got biceps, tattoos and a Scottish accent. And thats it - that's all they've got.
(which leaves you in the sh't when you've got a 19 year old football hungry scouser, who's proud about playing for his club, running at you with the ball).

Looks like we’re travelling first class …… on the Titanic and no matter what anyone tries to do to alter course, it ploughs relentlessly on.
He must surely have got a picture about what his first team must look like by now and using it, yet he appears to want to mix the formula on the pitch.
WE DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO PISS ABOUT, COBBLE TOGETHER THE BEST 11 AND DRILL THEM TILL THEY CAN AT LEAST GIVE US A SEMBLANCE OF A TEAM.