A team who were a team…who we made look like world beaters because we just weren’t good enough or cared enough, we collapsed.
They had no physical giants on the pitch, even in defence, they didn’t need them because they were drilled to play a certain way, but that certain way was no magic formula for success, it was down to hard work and constant running, but we have to concede they looked good because we let them look good.
They had the ball and kept the ball by clear precise passing, but because of that they weren’t running around like headless chickens.
All their goals were ground level quick passing performed at speed and players knew their job. It’s a system that works for them and we helped them to excel on this particular occasion.
We never made space, we still showed there is no communication or anticipation of other players …we ‘played’ like strangers meeting up in a pre season friendly.
They made space and criminally we never marked them man for man, when we had the ball we stood off them and consequently allowed them to benefit handsomely from our naivety.
When we had the ball they were drilled to mark their man and stopped any hope of passing with the result we were wishful left with punts up field and chasing elusive balls, we effectively played without a midfield and have been for some time.
We have no plan on the field, we play for what passes for our game and appear to have no insight to our opponents style of play.
We could have bullied them off the pitch, but we didn’t, there was two teams playing two completely different interpretations of the same game.
Coaching, what coaching, what preparation … the recurring theme with the turnstile of managers is the coaching remains the same, I suspect it’s time we get rid of everyone when we change managers in future because a clean sheet is needed…it’s definitely time to review the coaching and not allow managers to come in and find their plans undermined by poor coaching, it’s just so odd the way the poor coaching shows through as a constant for years now…if I can train my dogs to perform, surely someone getting paid to train ‘sports men’ should have no problem….rhe only difference being my dogs are fighting fit, remorseless, eager to please, respond to orders and always willing to win…..unlike that shite I watched till the 67th minute when me and one of my lads looked at each other and walked away…humiliation.
I was concerned and said so all along this season, but now I’m truly worried we’ve lost the plot.
It’s half past five and I’m off out with the dogs, ……

Fair assessment Snowy. It all looked a bit like Eastleigh at first and then (without the drubbing to come) sit back as someone on here told us he had heard about KP at Shields. Sitting back etc then turns into can't get the ball. Don't recall The Heed once lifting the ball at height except maybe their corners. Well that's set up nicely for Friday. If another canoe man appears off Seaton it will probably be KP paddling back up the coast. The trip to Dorking last day is beginning to have all the hallmarks of them winning to stay up. Surely it can't happen. Woeful Wednesday trying to take in the aftershock of last night.

our biggest two hopes for friday is that football is a funny old game and its hard to predict the result in this league no matter who are playing. we will not concede 7 and gateshead will not score that number either during the rest of the season.

We'll concede 8 instead on Friday.

Is it possible to be worse than last night….we live in interesting times.
I’m looking forward to Friday..in a masochistic sort of way.

100% spot on snowy !!!
I was watching in utter dis belief as time and time again we had the full left side of the pitch and also their key player unmarked on the edge of the box as they approached - it was like we where playing man city in the FA cup. They made us look like sunday league players (in which im starting to think alot of them are tbh). However we should of taken the game to them at 1-0, this whole sitting back thing. Is it really a tactic deployed by KP ? surely not. It doesnt work for the best teams in the world (unless your 7-1 up).

Coaching staff everything just needs a change - do we analyse the opposition anymore ? does the manager take into consideration the sytle of play and key players from the oppo ? or is he just winging it and making it up as he goes along on the match day as it appears lately so !
just all round shocking - we cannot have that team feature on friday. Crawford needs to come out and Mani O also !

Gateshead showed us last night the level we at least need to be at to sit anywhere near the top of the NL.
They had some class last night and some players just ran us into the ground. Cannot believe Gateshead did that to us !

I watched as some of our players one defender hesitated and basically chickened out of tackles…..our attacks for what they were worth were vague lobs into their half and our midfield became football version on consciencous objectors and looked the other way… we need a Haynes Manual for basic Football coaching we were pitiful.

There was only 1 player who came out last night with any credit was Joe Grey. To single our Crawford and Mani O as being poor is ridiculous, Parkes made a lovely side foot pass to their man on the edge of the box for one of the goals. The kid on the right was lost CBs woefully exposed for lack of pace, despite that giant of a holding midfielder and Captain Fantastic in front of them. Fergy has always been a weakness defensively so why was he left without any cover? Agymang headless chicken, Mani D back to goal most of the match unfortunately the ball was back to them off him most of the time.
None of them could complain if they're not in the squad on Friday to be fair after that shit show.
They have shown all season what can be done with a limited budget but with good staff and recruitment.

Aye, Grey was the only player who didn’t need to blush at the final whistle.

No need to write long paragraphs it was abysmal and humiliating. Full stop.

being a local lad coming up via the youth team might be the reason for that. get stephenson in the side with him as i,m sure he would not have waved the white flag as readily as others did in the second half. you can forgive mistakes but never lack of effort.

Huge job on to sort out a team to take on Halifax on Friday - they've won 7 out of their last 8 too. Another low budget club outperforming us massively.

Don’t read them then.

But...but...thats my opinion too.
Dont say I am being "ridiculous" or I will get upset.
You told me to look opinion up in the dictionary and I did as you asked.
Now you treat me like this.
Please show some respect mate.

OK - to single out Crawford and Mani O as being poor is ridiculous imo.

But Crawford is one of our senior players, been at the club for a few seasons now not a few weeks like some of his junior teammates, he should be leading by example, not showing the pea hearted qualities he tends to when we're up against it.

So is Captain Fantastic who was also anonymous last night. Along with most of them.

Yes agreed, there needs to be full and frank enquiry into that "performance" last night, not a try and forget it ever happened approach.

I,ve said it time and time again, Coaching what coaching.
Has anybody else noticed on the few occasions players are allowed to play, They play well.
Seems our coaching methods stiffle the players.

I watched Gatesheads v Allty highlights from the weekend, Our so called coaching staff did not.
Because in those 5-6 mins of highlights Gatesheads tactics were on full view, And they have been playing the same game mostly this season,
Passing through the lines.

The point i,m trying to getr across is this. THEY PLAY THEIR GAME AND CONCENTRATE ON IT week in week out.

We seem to base our tactics on stopping the opposition, Heres an old cliche. "Play to your strengths" and heres another one "Best form of defence is attack"

If there were no fights in the dressing room after the game then that tells me everything. "The beautiful Game" believe that you,ll believe owt

PS: I also stated after the Eastleigh game, "The tactics were totally inept"

lets face it the Gateshead Midfield is a key reason why they are pushing from promotion and slotted 7 easy goals past us last night.

everyone of them were absolute quality on the ball - knew where to pass it and always had a runner or someone willing to do something. likewise our lot where the complete bloody opposite. Crawford should be no where near a NL team given his performances of late - some time away in the NLN would benefit him. Said this from the start of the season.

Grey yeh did enough and was willing well done and credit to how hes been of late !

Yeh agree also Parkes wasnt at his best last night but once it went 3-1 the heads went down and the white flags came out. Hence the score line after !

bollockings must be on the agenda but not to the extent that some throw their toys out of the pram and perform even worse. its a hard line not to break nowadays with players who might not take to criticism asplayers of the past did.

possibly its too beautiful now and not enough dirty grit mixed up with the pretty stuff.

I hope Crawford to get to play away from the vic, He may then be allowed were he can cause the oppo problems.
Because our coaching staff (using the term loosely) are playing him out of position.

Sorry Accy I don't agree, that's one of the problems for me, the "let's put an arm around them" and avoid confrontation of any sort, they need to know that that kind of performance is totally unacceptable, not pandering to these soft as clarts modern day spoilt, entitled "star" players.

Apart from making Joe Grey's goal with a great pass and putting him clean through with another one in the first half. Granted, he was as bad as nearly everyone else in the second half capitulation.

problem is do they know that there will be little shit going to happen to them if they do not perform. fact is with the players available its difficult for any last night not to make the bench at least on friday because there are no alternatives and could be the case for the rest of the season. a really good manager knows how far they can go with bollockings to avoid making things even worse and losing the dressing room. we know this from our own workplace and how much or little effort we put in.

its just an excuse for us to knock our least favourite player on nights like that. most provided us with the ammunition we needed. itcertainly took some time for one good contribution from last night to get a mention.

Well said Mr Hogan
Just about to mention that myself.
Cant find a vid at the mo to confirm it unfortunately.
But sure it was a beautiful forward pass by Feaths.
Amazin that from someone regarded as a crab who is so f/kin useless according to some on here, despite 410 appearances behind him and the captaincy.
Some people never satisfied tho.
Rigid one dimensional thinking I think it's called.
Cannot be cured.
Will look up in dictionary.

It was a classic game of two halves, but it’s becoming a regular feature, what are they giving them at half time…..?

thing is it wasn,t as all the problems of the second half were there to see in the last half of the first period. non defenders getting in the way of defenders, inability to clear the ball with two or three getting involved in it, when cleared it went straight to one of their lads as there was no outlet. thats before fergy,s exposure is mentioned and the RB spot. thought at the break that could we just nick a goal and do something very rare where pools are concerned, come away with 3 points we never deserved. how many times have we come away from games thinking how have we lost or only drew that to a side that nicked it but had the luck as well as balls to see a game out they should never have done.

Here's a future Quiz Question for the Corner Flag:

What English professional football team got beat 7-1 in a game but didn't pick up a single booking?

Talk about not laying a glove on the opposition! And here's the thing - Kenton Richardson got booked for a professional foul when the Heed were already 6-1 up and a Pools consolation goal was neither here nor there in the scheme of things. The beautiful game is no excuse for a piss poor attitude.

There's a couple in last night's starting 11 that I would be happy never to see again in a Pools shirt. Considering KP only made 2 substitutions last night, one when it was 6-1, I fully expect Pools them all (apart from Oduroh out, Cooke in) to be 'given a chance to redeem themselves' on Friday. They feckin better!

I was being a bit sarcy in all honesty for the sake of the punchline.

if there had been a few cautions thrown about especially after their 3rd went in they,d be described as being stupid ones after the game is more or less been lost. or why didn,t they do it earlier when we had a chance. be interesting what fans would make of a player who got sent off at 7-1 for gobbing at the ref or taking one of their lads out badly and missing 3 important games.

Not asking for petulance or stupidity, just for people to stand up and be counted like Richardson did.

True but is that because he is a real Poolie who wears the shirt with pride as opposed to the club jumping badge kissing wankers.

just watched the goal highlights and as a 63 man who plays "walking football" I think I could have walked through the Pools midfield last night not a tackle in sight, shameful

Douglas Bader would!

Even after his injuries the Black Knight would have made it through unhindered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmInkxbvlCs

Unfortunately though Featherstone and the rest of the shower were no were to be seen withi 5 yards for the 8 goals that went past them, luckily one got chalked off

Let's be honest Fev didn't make Joe's goal did he? He passed to Joe in the box, Joe f*cked up the lay off to Mani D but latched on to the loose ball to score as I recall - definitely no assist for Fev.
Besides which if 1 decent pass is all you can remember then what about the couple of saves Jameson actually made, the shot from Mani D which forced a save 1st half, a couple of good balls from Fergy, some decent headers from the CBs - put them all together and you've got to wonder how we lost!!
Fev was as poor as any last night, and his leadership was absolutely non existent. He along with probably 7 or 8 of last nights starters could have no complaints if they were dropped from Fridays game.
When KP arrived we played a higher pressing and faster paced game, we've reverted to the boring, tippy tappy, unproductive style that cost Askey his job.

whats happened to Dickenson and Cooper ? just shying away from being under the spot light in this piss poor team.

Promote some of the younger lads who are doing well in the kids team. Sure as shit they will give more than half them slackers did last night !

Jameson as much as he let in 7 - didnt do too bad and wouldnt drop him either. Fergie needs a day off and we need to find a RB for the remaining games otherwise i will put quite alot of the blame on the fact this wasnt addressed as soon as Seaman went back as main reasoning for our downfall this season. Hendrie did okay but again was no wing back which is what we need to be playing.

I think in reality we all looking forward to the mass clear out in May.
But in this Chairmans World KP will be most probably have to offer most of that shit cut price wages to stay and given till July to decide.
Then probably sign a few back up in October on the NMW when nobody else wants them.
Hello more Failure looks the future under this Regime.

We all know whats coming in the summer, the same old shite. Probobly sign some lad from scarborough proclaim he is the next big thing, then play him twice and scatter him. Sign 8 players with about 30 games between them, while most of our fans claim they are great signings, only to be pezzled again first day. We are living in cukoo land if we think things will change in the summer. Look at the state of recent loan signings, absoloutely pathetic for a club this size, jokes, this lad from derby would not get a game at stockton town. Duffus signed to get goals, has he ever scored one? Part of me thinks were better off going down now instead of putting ourselves through more of this. Then the other part thinks were just going to get even more humiliated.

Duffus scored last night..... unfortunately at the wrong end.

Least the lad is coming good then.

As I walk this land of broken dreams.
I see things I should never of seen..................

Are you becoming a poet or song writer….we should be told.

Kev you really must stop using your binoculars to spy on bathrooms during your late night walks.

I’m glad you said ‘walks’ there…one wrong letter and it could have been a bit naughty.

Kev,s missed his meds again, Yes Kevin i am JoeKing