Home banker.
3 1
Mani hat trick.
3789.

Tidy 2 nil victory and clean sheet please!

ManiD and Lacey from a corner to score

Crowd 4450 with a minibus full from Maidenhead

2-0. Mani D and Wreh.

Maidenhead are unbeaten in their 2 games so far, helped by the opposition having a man sent off in both! Bet their boss Alan Devonshire is looking for a hat-trick of red cards, so Pools better be careful.

Devonshire is an - ahem - 'wily old fox' - and they've beaten us 2 times out of 3 in previous visits to the Vic. I wouldn't be so sure this one is an easy 3 points for us.

If you have real ambition, These are the games you have to win.

There are no easy games in the NL especially at this early stage when the players are all fresh and optimistic. We should be beating the likes of Maidenhead but tht certainly does not mean we will.

Why would it be a home banker against a team unbeaten and above us in the league.

Some people have short memories. Last time Pools got out of this division it was our home form that got us up, only 1 defeat in the last 15 home games - by Maidenhead.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56953571

tougher test than The Heed for me - might be a right shitty night too. Just glad its still light nights and warm enough to watch.

think they will have a game plan - wont be no push overs and have a few handy players.

still think we might just pinch it 1-0 with Mani D grabbing his 3rd of the season !

they also have a player now serving a 3 match ban with Zico Asare seeing Red too

4-0 ManiD 2 Wreh 1 Mancini 1 4471

1-1
Can see this being a pretty attritional game, and with us having put a big shift in Sat and having pretty much zero options on the bench the quality could drop

I agree. I cant see Maidenhead trying to pass the ball around like Gateshead. They will sit back and try to hit us on the break which is also our style judging by Saturday, so "cagey" may well be the order of the day. They will be happy with a draw so it seems to me it will be a question of if we are good enough to break them down or alternatively is their defence good enough to keep us out. But heck, what do I know?

Agree with you about the score, but the minibus… you optimistic dreamer.

33 away supporters

Ever the optimist, me Snowy!

12 seater plus 2 in the front including driver!
and 1 random exile all the way from Peterlee - Total 15!

Pools a gutsy 1-0 win, a Mancini world'y 5 minutes from time and they miss a penalty.

4301

Pools 2 Maidenhead United 0 Manni and Mancini. Crowd 4,200 with 31 from down south including Theresa May ex PM.

I’m now visualising a double deck minibus

Fuck knows what the bench is will look like, we really are on the bones of our arse squad wise
Short term loan at least would be nice, we have no options at all further fwd

Ye.
Let the opposition worry about the Fortress Vic and its Lunatic inhabitants.
UTP

With Umerah suspended who is going to replace him, Gray is having a fitness test, who is available ?

Wreh

totally agree and was thinking the same. pools showed on saturday they can play without the ball. if they set up with no ambitions but defend and pick us off on a break have we the ability to break down teams who play like that. if they do we,ll get the answers about 10 tonight.

One change, Wreh for the suspended Umerah. No change in system so the team picks itself.

Pools the better side without looking too threatening....Wreh missed absolute sitter--proper Touche Turtle job.

Can see this ending up a stupid 0-1

Don’t take up fortune telling Blackpool

great 2nd half performance, can only beat whats in front of you but pretty much everyone did well

23 as it turns out, spare seats on the minibus.

Ratings

Dixon 6 Not much to do, his distribution is better than Killips, doesnt seem any better on crosses tho

Ferguson 7 --did well and scored
Seaman 8 MOM not sure why people wrote him off after Barnet--brilliant goal when I thought he should have passed and almost had another

Mani O 7 - Our most important player, making teh 2 next to him look better--played man onside for their goal or would have been higher
Lacey 7 Didnt do much wrong and decent distribution much better with a physical player next to him
Dodds 7 Good, great assist for 3rd goal

Crawford 8- Getting ready to eat humble pie with him, done well all season
Cooke 8 - Always a trade off with what you gain with his ability vs lose with his lack of physicality--well worth trade off today
Mancini 7 Good player, needs to learn when to release ball--will get better

Wreh 6- Missed sitter and messed up easy thru ball for Cooke, but did well for first goal and put a shift in
Mani D 7 Held up play well and looked a threat

Gripes...

Stupid yellow cards, have to blame ref--for Mani D and Dodds one though...suspensions gonna mount up

Thanks for that, Mr Loyal.

That's more like it played really well tonight excellent team performance.

Lets just hope we can keep this level of tonight's performance consistently, it will be a very good season.

Frustrating first half as Maidenhead came to sit in and try to nick one on the break, but compared with our last stay in this league Pools looked more willing to try to get the ball forward and have some players with real pace, which makes a very pleasant change!

Once we got the first goal they were able to pick Maidenhead off for fun as they tried to come out of their shell. Good surging runs ball at feet from Dodds, Seaman (what a beauty the second goal was), Mancini and Wreh. Pools should have scored 5 or 6 with the chances they had - everybody thought we had 4 for about 30 seconds till it was chalked off for offside.

Ref was as poor as you expect at this level, conned a fair few times with Maidenhead players dropping like wounded soldiers every time they were tackled. Think Pools need to wise up though - most of the bookings were stupid ones for dissent. It's obvious refs at all levels are under orders not to to tolerate dissent. Maidenhead had got the memo and did zero gobbing off in the ref's direction - unlike us.

To The Hartlepool 3-1. Pleased to loose money on a 2-0 scoreline. Keep it up boy and well done. Southend U might not be so easy.

The main thing that I've taken away from tonight's match is the positivity, fitness and bonding of a well drilled team. What a breath of fresh air. And it's only our third game. Last season we were into at least the 20th game before anyone looked like they knew what day it was or where they'd been loaned to. There wasn't a single player that had a bad game tonight (and even the referee would have had a good match if he wasn't so card happy).

A great second half full of pace and positivity, should of been 6-0 rather than 3-1. Noticed gateshead scored 4 away at daggenham, might prove to be a big win against them. Let's hope we're not just a home team and can do it at Southend now.

How embarrassing - I underestimated the size of the Maidenhead Massif by almost 50%
I said 15 and they managed 23 - I'll get my coat!

That said - what a difference a week makes - 6 points at home & 5 goals and possibly could have been more. Only fly in the ointment was not managing to keep a clean sheet at the death.

See SARFend lost 2-1at Dorking after opening the scoring tonight. Would take a point there if offered now however as my Outlaws are all Shrimpers, I would love it....... LOVE IT, if we beat them!!!

Agree , but please stop the constant references to Killip , he’s gone, bury him and move on.

Dixon dropped 1 cross FFS, he came for everything in his 6 yard box whereas "he who shall not be named would have been rooted to his line". The defence looks far more confident with Dixon, and his constant shouting at them to keep organised is a major improvement, plus his distribution is good and often fast to get us on the front foot.
Don't think it's coincidence that we're doing better with Lacey in the line up either.

I thing I took away was the way Pools play the patient passing game keeping possession no hoof football, the keeper rolling the ball out rather than the hopeful punt up the park.I was impressed when we did break, it was with pace, Manny Onariase is a breath of fresh air, great signing, Mancini ran his socks off although I can’t fault any of the players. Pools as a team look as if they have been playing together for years and appear to be really enjoying their football.

Excellent points return so far.
Settle for 4 more from next 2 games which should produce over a 1000 poolies at Chesterfield.
Early days but a tad of Optimism forming.
UTP.

Got to agree, 3 games 2 wins is a good start. Good to see that there has been continuing improvement game on game, and even moreso that we've had 2 at the Vic and won them both.

They seem to be gelling as a team far quicker than I anticipated or hoped for.
They remind me of the teams who visited us over the past two seasons and I used to wish we had a team like that.

Crawford looks to be fitting in very well and must be on the way to silencing some of his critics. Rarely gives the ball away, covers huge distances, and looking to get us moving forward.
Hope he can stay fit.
Some silly bookings, referee and linesman on mill house side 2nd half were totally inept. Can see the need for a deeper squad coming up as suspensions will be kicking in a lot earlier this season. Did the ref give offside for the disallowed goal cos lino only put his flag up after ref blew.

Agree about Crawford. Last night was the best all round display I've seen from him in a Pools shirt.

i have always said that crawford does fine in a winning team. be more interested how he does do when we are up against it. he,ll win me fully over if he gives his all and performs when that happens.

actually we look better now than we did in our promotion season at this early stage. next saturday will be a real interesting game to see as billingham said, are we a home team only. this would not be the first time we have not travelled well over the years and we have looked a far different proposition away than at the vic. enjoyed the half game the stream allowed me to do and at least i saw the first 2 goals.

Think we were up against it 2nd half against Gateshead and Crawford had a fine game defensively but also made the interception and released Mani D for the decider.
I'm quite happy seeing him in a winning team and would prefer that we don't see many times when we're up against it.

All we ask is a team that fights and we had that in abundance last night. How good maidenhead are I'm not sure, but we brushed them aside second half at will. Let's see how we get on at the Southend and chesterfields now, hopefully we can produce this away.

The second half especially made Maidenhead look like a team playing a team a couple of leagues above them, it was pure pleasure to watch them, they were relentless.

Only 10 out