Certainly appears to have shed a few pounds, seen a photo of him a bit back and how he is now, I know not every one’s favourite as he was a Hartley signing like wise Hastie.

Like you say Mr J, just because Hartley signed him doesn’t mean he has to be tarred with the same brush, judge the lad on what he does.

His only around 21 years old so there might be a player in him.

most players who hartley signed, especially those from north of the border have to be much better than a JA signing because of him for the fans to really warm to them. its odd that fans of all clubs wanting players to fail just to there agendas live and kicking and not about tthe bigger picture the team.

On Saturday I said Brody Paterson had 'worked his nuts off' against Wealdstone. Poolies always have time for a grafter, and Brody has a fair amount of skill too. The biggest drawback with him is the same as last season - to use the Scottish vernacular, he's weak as pish in the tackle and tends to just bounce off people. Maybe that's something he can work on.

thing is we are stuck with grey who is just as bad in this. just because you are not built like a brick shithouse it does not mean you cannot put a bit more bite into your play.

Except that when Paterson is picked as a wing back, getting tackles in is part of the JD. Callum Cooke can't tackle to save his life either, but he' not in the side for his defensive qualities.

If Paterson could Tackle and also choose the correct pass when under pressure or back defending - Celtic wouldnt of let him come to us thats for sure. Hes way off being the finished article and i can see him playing back up the road at a high level when hes say 30 plus.

I was happy with his appearance at the weekend - a decent showing for a NL LWB if you like. Is there better ... yes.. but we dont need to replace him, hes there as a squad player and can do a job. What we do need to look at is the center of the defence. We need someone else in there so Fergy can move back across. Pruti again just a squad player and i feel like if we are serious about getting out of this league then a left sided good CB needs to come in. Again Lacey may be in and out of this side due to injuries across the season - we cant carry that inconsistency im afraid - we had the luck in the promotion season of having a solid back line an we need it again now.

Take my hat off to Paterson, Could have easily walked.
Would have no problem getting a club back home.

Hes knuckled down and decided to fight for a place, Good luck to him.

Celtic didn’t let him go, he turned down a contract extension, a friend from north of the border said similar about him, can’t tackle but good going forward, I remember Richie Humphries at left back he couldn’t tackle either.

lets hope we have another Ritchie in the making !

Never rated Humphries more so when he played at left back, wingers just cut inside him as his right leg was only for standing on, no idea why he was voted player of the century or whatever award he won.

Humphreys was outstanding for a few seasons when he first arrived as an attacking force. He got worse as he played midfield and LB as games just passed him by.
Never forget the time he skipped past a LB on the touchline and took time to smile and wave to the crowd in the Cyril Knowles stand as he charged forward, think it was his first season with us.

Patterson did ok attacking but not so good defensively. Think he's out of his depth but he tried his best and did a shift so well done.
It's a squad game and we're going to need the squad players to be ready to step up when they get their chance.

I think he is lacking in ability, but certainly on Saturday he couldn't be faulted for effort.

You could level the defensive frailty against all of our wing backs this season. Seaman let their attackers get too many crosses into the box on Saturday and Ferguson has been criticised for the defensive side of his game in the past.

You could also level the same criticism against Trent Alexander-Arnold but you have to balance this with their other contributions. How many assists has Ferguson made this season, at least four I’d say. Paterson can’t put the same quality cross in as Ferguson at the moment but I would say he still makes a good contribution to the side.

Very fair and honest assessment

Supporters do tend to target a players failings in one aspect of their play and play down their attributes, sometimes depending on their perception of the player, Bu realistically the all round player doesn’t exist. And if they do the old ‘Jack of all trades master of none applies’.

It was the Millhouse Stand v Bristol Rovers.
Quality piece of skiill n humour.
Did well for Pools in a variety of positions.

think we were told that about him when he played last season after he was awful in onee game as a defender but looked better when he played again in a more attacking role.

when you have a small squad a jack of all trades type is needed. not to base your team around but for filling in to allow others to keep their positions where they are good at and not lose their affectivness.

The Utility man is more needed at this level than ever - especially with the amount of daft cup games involved too.

i do hope for the way things are panning out that we dont take any of the cup games seriously - we literally dont have a B team to even field to just bypass these cup fixtures - if anything maybe have a go at the FA cup money purely for the chance to get the BBC TV money.

the only good thing about the fa cup is the money we could get out of it with no guarentee JA would see any of it anyway. i,ll predict now we are not going to win it. We could win the trophy but please not at the expense of our league position. If we by accident found ourselves in the semi final then thats the only time it should be treated seriously.

Not a fan of going out of cups early doors to the statement of lets concentrate on the league.
But agree our managers seeing cup moneys is as rare as rocking horse shit.

We've hardly ever had a decent cup run in any of the competitions- and concentrating on the league, hasn't gone too well either!

Our last decent cup run was the Pizza Cup Area Final that we lost on Spot kicks to Rotherham. Whilst the lottery of penalties went against us that night- look at the excitement a possible Wembley appearance generated across the town?

I'd snap your hands off now- if offered a competitive top half finish and Winning the Trophy (FAT - from the vidiprinter days- always made me smile) at Wembley - as Halifax did last season.

No one really remembers finishing outside the top 3- but lifting a piece of silverware (even if it is ONLY the FAT- like it would have been ONLY the Pizza cup) in a Wembley Final would be a completely different gravy for us Poolies - what a day out that would be!

think a wembley appearance for pools is something all poolies crave for and i think a win there would put the town on the map locally more than a promotion back to the league would. we have ticked that one off and the excitement will be less than last time it happened. if we did get there i can see everyone going who well beg steal or borrow to make it. i personally have no interest in knock out competitions but it would be a highlight after years of crap to see pools coming out at wembley and winning.

id welcome that all day long and id go to every FA trophy / cup the lot game if possible... if we had a B side.

we would suffer going on a FA trophy cup run - the fact we can only have a 5 man bench too suffers the squad rotation players so we are never going to have a big squad in this league without a full time reserve team. regardless of money and wages etc as i genuinely believe we could sustain a decent 25 lad squad with all players being of quality with no kids in there just to make the numbers up. Like we did back in the good old days !

Too many crap pitches - too many games this season with the players we have

suffer another first team casualty like we have with Dodds and Mancini all for some daft cup would be heartbreaking at this point and just Pool' luck tbh !

That maybe the case but we need to put out a competitive team and take the FAT reasonably seriously as a lot of other clubs will play weaker teams - making our chances of a much coveted trip to Wembley a real possibility.

The point I was making was the usefulness of the utility player, who is no specialist or top man in any role but performs well enough to get by in all roles on the pitch.

its a bit like that pizza paint trophy where everyone puts out their squad players to get a game and only take it seriously when the drop into the last 8 happens more by luck than management.

yeh this is true - if by some how you can get lucky and scrape through with your B team then gradually mix in the first teamers, its always worth then playing your strongest side to see you through those final rounds as we did.

i still cant believe with that team of Fondop and Smithy we managed to beat Bolton and the likes of Sheff Wed at home. Not forgetting Blackpool at the Vic too in the FA cup was it ?

The worst footballer on the pitch today, he is simply not good enough.

don't like scapegoating but he isnt strong or quick enough to compensate for his fairly average footballing ability.

He would probably get away with his below average ability iif he showed a bit of bottle and passion, but he won't go into a tackle and shows no fight whatsoever.
How he gets anywhere near the team is a complete mystery to me.
Big mistake by him to lose possession leading to the first goal. I'd have hooked him and put Grey on the left

He's simply not good enough, he should be playing for the likes of kelty hearts!

Clicked into this thread fully expecting a long list of Patterson’s failings. Really surprised it’s been as supportive as it is. Think the lad is trying his best but he is so far out of his depth it’s not funny.

well he cannot say he has not been given a chance this season and playing higher up the field where he is supposed to be better at. even tumulty tried to put a shift in when he was out of his depth last season. think yesterdays performance has hopefully signed his death warrent as a player with pools no matter how short of bodies we are.