Serious question to all those Whom blamed the injuries on our recent performance.

Cooke, Wallace and Manici are all or soon to return to full fitness.

Dodds still out, can't blame Lacey as not a lot like him!

So if you have blamed injured players and not Askey. If nothing improves over the coming weeks. Please let us know what the problem is still?

All because a lot of fans have blamed injuries, but as said before many of times, our goal scorers aren't injured.

Just wondering....

You forgot to mention Umerah (is/used to be goal scorer) Hendrie and Jameson. Also Gray and Seaman both out at the last minute when in the team for yesterday's game. All in all, quite a list, 8 players: Dodds, Mancini, Umerah, Hendrie, Jameson, Gray, Seaman,Lacey all not available yesterday although Cooke came on from the bench and Wallace was on the bench as an unused sub. Mattock went off injured and some people at the game reckon Manni played on through an injury. Christ help us if turns out Manni is injured and out for a few weeks. Injuries seem to be a significant problem if you atre trying to sort out a "settled starting line up" and if you spent two weeks working on a formation change that goes tits up before the ball is kicked when two players drop out at the last minute. How the heck can any manager develop a settled side when he can hardly ever start a game with the same 11 players.

Good point Ozzy. Then you have to question what are we doing in training to get such bad injuries?

actually looking at our pitch prior to kick off i,m surprised we have not had even more injuries. re laying it certainly has not helped our players for a start.

There is a merry go round in our dressing room with regard to injuries.
There must be a reason for that. It's virtually one after another. It was suggested to me that some players could be feigning injuries and when I counter suggested that might be taking guesswork a bit too far he said well considering as some of them are going missing on the pitch with a perceived couldn't care less attitude what is to stop them going missing off the pitch.
If we have got anywhere near that scenario God help us.

The opposition play on the same pitch and doesn’t seem to effect their game.
Down to basics….there’s got to be a rift in the dressing room.
Answer …a manager is cheaper and more practical to change than a full playing squad

Er, that’s it, it ain’t rocket science.

If that was the case Mr Derwent, that would indicate that either he's lost the dressing room or the players are down tools over something behind the scenes. Which could be bigger than what we suspected or worst news to come..

I'm with you Snowy, he's lost the dressing room and the players are playing for themselves. It's funny how we can score goals, if we where just going on a really bad patch and very low on confidence, we be getting beat 2-0, 3-0.. We would not have a striker with 12 goals this side of Christmas..

I’ve seen plenty of teams over the years but this lot are performing like the team at the end of the first relegation season where they seemed to go through the motions then woke up just too late to save us.
This needs sorting.

So your point is? Pools have been finishing games strongly for weeks - not something that teams who have given up do! Ebbsfleet were well on top for long spells yesterday. It's bleedin' obvious that our players are low on confidence - they couldn't keep hold of the ball or string 2 passes together. That changed when Cooke came on and started bringing people into play. Hastie's goal was no more than Pools deserved the way the last 20 minutes of normal time went.

No idea where the ref got 8 minutes of injury time from (he played 10!) but instead of just carrying on doing what they'd been doing the players fannyied around trying to keep the ball near their corner flag, with Manni D having lumps kicked off him for his trouble.

Absolutely Mr Z. There's a rabbit off somewhere.

Absolutely, I was going to make that point but didnt want to write an overly long post cos I had stuff to do. There is no doubt that if so many injuries are cropping up you have to wonder if they are being over-trained. Surely cant simply be bad luck. Just going to add as an edit that if they are being over trained it would explain an apparent lack of energy on the pitch. Just speculating but maybe Askey knows his squad is very limited but hopes to make up for it by having the fittest players in the league: lack of ability made up for by the ability to run through brick walls. IF this is the plan it is not working.

That'll explain Newcastle having half their first team out with injuries too then? Most of Pools' injured players are out for months at a stretch, there's hardly anybody missing the odd week or two in classic worky ticket style. Are you seriously suggesting the club physio and other staff are that gullible?

Personally couldn't care about Newcastle

However, Pools seem to go through Physio like every other month or so.

Raj is nobbling them it's obvious isn't it

EIGHT pools players unavailable yesterday and Mattock goes off injured and some allegations of Mani D hurt as well which makes TEN. Almost enough for a whole team.

lol

Mani D definitely was holding the back of his thigh and struggling to run for a while, pwraonally i feared the worst (hamstring) but he seemed to run it off and was fine for the 2nd goal.
Hopefully it was just a knock and doesn't keep him out of the team.

Now where did I put that prayer mat?

Finishing strong is no good if you’re basically running around like headless chickens for the first 70 minutes…yes they are low on confidence but why……that’s up to the manager.
Too much tinkering with formations, tactics and personnel, injuries aside Askey likes to tinker.
We are arriving at the same conclusion from different ends.

No I'm not suggesting anything except there being something wrong. We have been dogged with injuries virtually all season and now are faced with a near pandemic. I wish I could explain it. I really do. Maybe you could have a stab at it.

The difference is some people see the writing on the wall before others. I got laughed at last season, when I said it was over after the Newport game defeat. Everyone said Crawley was the game.

Fast forward 6 months and it's the same again. I've been saying for weeks now, something not right and some still can't see it and some are just starting to see it.

If the dressing room has gone then its self inflicted by weak as piss lack of discipline management.
As well as clueless tactics.
Top of the non clean sheet league by a country mile.
Hes the only winner at the club undeservingly getting that 3 years contract.
No wonder hes give up.
Easy money.
FFS.
This is unreal.

He's looking for his Christmas bonus as in a payout

Really, we're not. To the best of my memory he's started gone with a different formation from the start of a game ONCE this season - that was today, tried a 4-3-3 with Wreh and Hancox up alongside Manni D. He had to can it because if Pools had stayed with 4 at the back they'd have been hammered.
Happy to be corrected if there's been another change of starting formation from the usual 5-3-2 that I've missed.

Apart from dropping Manny O for a couple of games (which I didn't agree with) every change he's made during this bad run has either been to accommodate a new loan player or temporary signing (Featherstone) or because players have dropped out with injures. Like yesterday - Hendrie, Grey and Umerah weren't fit from the Rochdale starting 11, so in came Agyemang, Wreh and Hancox. So really, he isn't 'tinkering' to anything like the extent you say he is.

He's definitely been trying to get some reinforcements into a depleted squad - what manager wouldn't? In my book Johnson, Mattock and Featherstone are all improvements on what we had. Too early to say about Hancox though he had a better 2nd half and likes a tackle. Agyemang got the short straw yesterday playing right out of position. I still think he'll likely be going back to the Borer this week.

Featherstone is like a millstone around the neck of our midfield, slow, predictable, immobile, non tackling, etc
He had a decent 1st game or 2 to earn a Co tract but since has reverted back to being the dearth of our midfield. Yesterday he was abysmal from the start and didn't improve. Hopefully Wallace is fit for Saturday and he'll be canned.

That doesn’t explain them all not waking up till 70 minutes into the game though does it.
We’ll just have to agree to disagree…each to his own.