The situation hasn't been helped by injuries. Curle has got Sterry and Niang just coming back from injury and Featherstone, Menayese, Hamilton and Grey (again) all out. They are players who would all make the matchday squad ahead of some of those who played tonight.

His post-match comments about how poor recruitment has been and how he's got some players who he wants to go on a journey with him and others who'll go on "a different journey" sounds fine but they're all on the same bus for another 2 1/2 months at least. Having a big clique of players - most of them with Scottish accents - who know they're surplus to requirements is going to be terrible for team morale.

and there is bound to be at least one shit stearer in the dressing room as well. bringing the rest down to their level and getting enjoyment out of it.

Reading the player comments after Hartley got the boot it's clear some of lads who were here last season thought they weren't getting a fair crack of the whip with his team selections. Curle has given everybody some game time since he came in but maybe the damage was already done and there's a rift in the dressing room. They certainly don't look like they are playing for each other.

Curle's diatribe last night about players who were with him on a journey and others who weren't put the seal on that. It wasn't exactly a call for unity was it?

It seems like he played a team last night which would highlight just how bad Hartley's signings were, as if to say this lot aren't my fault!!

truth hurts though. how many fans think the same. the vast majority i guess.

this possible dressing room rift only adds ammunition to what my old mate peter madden said about signing more than one scot in the side can create problems and that was 40 years ago.

Billy Bremner and Eddie Gray did alright playing together for Leeds

bit easier though at the top level when you are winning regularly than down where we are. many premier sides are a bit of a league of nations squads who pay more tax than we earn, not rock bottom lads who get payed in modern football wages near peanuts.

Plus Frank Gray, Peter Lorimer and Gordon McQueen.

They were were well drilled Revie fanatics who were welded into one winning unit.
Remember when they played here in the 70’s, got changed at the Grand Hotel and had those poncey tassel things on their socks, never did catch on did they

Aye the FA Cup match. Paul Hart hit the Rink End crossbar with a thunderbolt. The bar was shaking for two months !!!!

Dont forget Peter Lorimer.

We haven't, he's further up the thread.

By Everton school kids and now a Stockport team that Dident even get out of 1st gear.
Who says lightening dosent strike twice.
I dont think KC will keep us up.
But the problem is well above him.

if we are not lucky in january i think the problem is above anyone not just him. like a mechanic trying to fix a car with half a dozen bent and rusty tools. talking about tools, he has these in abundance.

Anutha manager who wont get past the 6 months probation. KC.
Who will be the next Desperado to be promised an excellent budget.

Ya know im correct.

The starting lineup was a sackable offence to be honest. But don’t fear… Peter Hartley is available for next match!!!!!!

and the alternatives are.

Even JC couldn't conjure up a miracle to get this team out of relegation trouble

Or AC/DC.

To be fair to him there's an unexpected injury literally every week, Cooke being the case yesterday and Murray unavailable, I'm guessing if Cooke had of played Dolan would've been at the back and then who knows what the result may have been, I knew Nicholls would score and assumed Hawkins would give us problems. 19 points from a possible 78 is a godawful return, 60 points left to play for we would need about 30 but can't see that happening atm.

Going back to March 12 2022 that is 23 points out of a possible 114. Getting 30 from 60 looks nigh on an impossibility
with this chairman, this manager and these players.

Boro appear to have come up trumps with Carrick, now in a play off spot with very little investment since Wilder was sacked.

or being positive its only 10 wins needed to obtain that and lets tick one off the list next saturday.

Think we came up trumps with the young ladf from the boro best player in our team by a country mile.
Dolan second, Who should have been CB from the off.

Such a weird lineup.

I am guessing Dolan was in midfield because Cooke was injured and KC thought he would be better employed in the midfield battle and he had other options available in defence. Obviously thought that Ferguson at CB alongside Menayese was viable because they had played there before but for the life of me, why play the new lad at CB? I can only speculate he was hoping to nullify the threat of Hawkins with the three CBs. Turns out you need three CBs who play in that position regularly if you are going to deal with the likes of Hawkins. I guess KC believed he was doing the right thing at the time. With Hawkins, Nicols and Dieng in their ranks Gillingham were too good for what we all acknowledge is a very poor Pools team. If we lose to Rochdale on Sat I think it will be more or less time to throw in the towel unless Crawley, Newport or Rochdale help us out by becoming worse than us. They'll have to try really hard, mind.

Is this question phrased correctly? Should it be 'Does Keith Curle have a chance?'

We're suffering another awful transfer window - and we should not be surprised - look at recent history.

Sure we had one of the worst summers ever - but was that all down to the socio-Scottish experiment or just a bloke who had swallowed the BS from the owner and tried to his best on groats and pebbles?

Harrison was a decent bloke. OK, OK, I know many will shout at me - but how do you know that he was operating with a decent - or no - budget? But what chance did he have?

Was Spike a good choice - or just a young man looking for his first step on the managerial ladder who instead took a step onto the professional gallows? What support did he get in the transfer market? Or did he just say, 'thanks Raj, keep your dosh in your pocket'.

We struck Gold with DC - but he was clearly misled over budgets - whilst history may get rewritten by the Poolie Propoganda unit, Singh bragged that he held back monies promised to DC.

And now we have Keith Curle - did he join us under the illusion that Singh was selling the club? Or that money would be made available? Or was he told that the owner was in the process of recouping his loans (which he can do if he wants to!!!) and that he'd have to sell anything with any value and cut costs to the absolute minimum? Or is KC of the view that the current squad is adequate?

Well, the only certain answer will be that KC does not think that the current squad is adequate.

So, has KC had a chance of saving us? We'll only find out when its too late - but when it starts kicking off when Big Josh goes to Peterborough and Rochdale leave The Vic with three points, the collective bile should be directed at the right target (and, for once, I exclude Hastie).

hartley also gets stick from the majority because of his scottish experiment. when he got settled in the job did he realise with the money he had available it might have sounded good in scotland but not for league 2 england. apart from his knowledge of players up there were they the only ones he could reasonably sign and meet their demands. feel a bit sorry for KC inheriting what he did and also not having a full squad ever to pick from due to injuries and sickness and bodging up a team week in week out.

It was me that started this thread, and to be honest I'm sorry you have dug it up. I'd been down to the Harrogate game and was hacked off with Keith Curle's tactics on the day because it was a game Pools could have won - Harrogate are another very poor team.

BUT it was early in KC's time in charge and I've since come to feel that he is doing a good job for us considering the hand he's been dealt - with injuries that have shown up just how weak the squad he inherited was.

Apologies FH - I think that we're on the same page - I dug it up precisely because I now think that he's doing alright under terrible circumstances.

[quote="Brian Honour's Left Foot"]Is this question phrased correctly? Should it be 'Does Keith Curle have a chance?'

We're suffering another awful transfer window - and we should not be surprised - look at recent history.

Sure we had one of the worst summers ever - but was that all down to the socio-Scottish experiment or just a bloke who had swallowed the BS from the owner and tried to his best on groats and pebbles?

Harrison was a decent bloke. OK, OK, I know many will shout at me - but how do you know that he was operating with a decent - or no - budget? But what chance did he have?

Was Spike a good choice - or just a young man looking for his first step on the managerial ladder who instead took a step onto the professional gallows? What support did he get in the transfer market? Or did he just say, 'thanks Raj, keep your dosh in your pocket'.

We struck Gold with DC - but he was clearly misled over budgets - whilst history may get rewritten by the Poolie Propoganda unit, Singh bragged that he held back monies promised to DC.

And now we have Keith Curle - did he join us under the illusion that Singh was selling the club? Or that money would be made available? Or was he told that the owner was in the process of recouping his loans (which he can do if he wants to!!!) and that he'd have to sell anything with any value and cut costs to the absolute minimum? Or is KC of the view that the current squad is adequate?

Well, the only certain answer will be that KC does not think that the current squad is adequate.

So, has KC had a chance of saving us? We'll only find out when its too late - but when it starts kicking off when Big Josh goes to Peterborough and Rochdale leave The Vic with three points, the collective bile should be directed at the right target (and, for once, I exclude Hastie).[/quote]


Keith curle has a thankless task anybody would struggle with what he has at his disposal. Not sure he has helped himself recently with certain tactics, I wouldn't even blame previous managers for the mess, it is clear they are working with a shoestring compared to every other team.

KC is trying to compete in League two with what is essentially a poor National League squad. We'd be bottom half in Division 5. Unless we sign 4/5 players in the next 11 days I see no way of avoiding bottom spot.

its just how the club was allowed to drift after the rotherham trophy defeat that really got us in the position it now finds itself in. a culture of losing has never really been addressed where its now in the blood of players who are now resigned to not winning games which has shown up in the last two games. what next another round of excuse bingo where the cards will be filled very quickly.

That Rotherham game sounded like 50000 in the Vic. It was Unreal.
Most Chairman would of said i need a bit more of that like a drug.

After the Rotherham game, to use a naval term, there was no one on the bridge and that’s when the rot set in.
That was the time when we should have been laying the foundations for this season, it was wasted.

And that Snowy is it in a nutshell!

A massive opportunity thrown in the bin.

That cup run disguises the fact that, even then, we were dismal in the league.

Curle has done nothing since he came but slag off the players after a defeat and claim credit for his one win. It is time for him to go, bring in some one who can motivate. Knowles came in to what he described as a holiday camp, brought in players from non-league and retirement and changed the dynamic and the team never looked back. Cyril was one in a million ( Ronnie was the two in a million)Take the blame Curle if you want to criticise then criticise the players in private not in the Mail. It may be to late for this season but let’s not end up like other teams that drop straight through the conference and into national League north.

One win

Credit to KC for the second half changes yesterday. Dodds and Pruti looked decent and there was clear improvement having a couple of leaders on the pitch (albeit one of them tried his hardest to get sent off). Can he do to Carlisle what DC did to us?

Could you do any better with the shite he inherited…..?

Blame game to Hartley excuse has run its course now.

The man was completely clueless. His league record was 4 draws and 5 defeats. His solution was falling out with everybody in the building and refusing to pick the players he had left from the Challinor days. He dropped David Ferguson to play Brody Paterson

I blame Raj for appointing Hartley in the first place. The only saving grace was sacking him in September before he could do more damage.

Oh no it hasn’t.

Singh has apologised for bringing Hartley in, 6 weeks before the new season and he didn’t have much time to look for players, did we even have a recruitment person, Hartley brought ones he was familiar with from north of the border which didn’t work out, let’s move on,

Merely stating we’re still enduring the fallout, there’s no doubt about that.
If we’re still in the league at the end of the season, then we can move on.

Let's hope the new signings give KC and the Supporters enough points to still remain in this league.

The R word is too frightful to contemplate.

Hartley is now jam.

Replacing a clueless manager with anutha one in the same season = A recipe for disaster.
And then Spouting off hes better than DC.
Its gunna cause a relegation riot for sure.