The Poolie Bunker

Is it me ..or is there a damp lethargy that seems to have settled over the club from top to bottom ….that seems to infest the club at all levels.
There’s a sort of despondent resignation that’s even reached the terraces and ambition and belief become a dirty word at a club on tick over.
Leadership starts at the top….we need some.

As I see it, a lot of it starts on social media. There seems to be some deep rooted need in some people to have a dig at anything the club does, and it's there, I'm not imagining it. That spreads quite quickly.
I remember Jake Cassidy (remember him?) when he left , he said Hartlepool is a very negative club, and a lot of people got angry with him for saying that. He was absolutely right, there's a lot of negativity in our support.

I think you’ve got this spot on. Crowd numbers must have dropped around 40% in two or three years. That says it all. There is just no communication regarding the direction of the club, with an absentee owner and board who are generally anonymous.

Ye.

But under no circumstances whatsoever can this rapid decline be put onto the fans.
Still outstanding numbers till next season.

As for the players.
Put the effort in you get backed to the hilt.

Real problem is in the boardroom which filters down to the pitch.
Moaning is being concerned n telling it how it is.
But SM is what it is.

If it's to hot to handle for a few exit the kitchen.

Wordage is overated bullshit in the SM world of everything is rosey or shit.

Forget about social media…..there’s a blatant malaise, that’s nowt to do with social media as most supporters don’t give a toss about social media
It’s obvious we’re wallowing without what appears to pass for committed leadership and it has to be tackled from the top down.

you can understand fans getting upset and negative after watching a bad performance and venting their anger on the club. however this is starting before a ball is kicked and the team is not even announced. the club needs its fans for sure but a little more pre match positivity would not go missing as nobody has a clue what is before them at ko time.

and if there was communication how many would believe a single word of it. either called bullshit or the club has a reason to put it out in the first place like the rallying cry for season ticket sales.

Nothing has changed in 50 years for me except the time we got into Div 1 and then i wasn't going that much.

Pools average home league gate in the season after promotion were (2021/2022) was 5,210 - the highest in almost 20 years, including a lot of seasons in League One! Partly it was a post-lockdown thing - home gates went up in every division except the Championship that year.

This season's average home gate is a bit below 3,600 - about 400 down on last season, and will drop further if results don't improve.

There's no doubt that the club is squandering a huge amount of goodwill from the fanbase at the minute. We all know gates would shoot up again if Poolies had a winning team to support.

true and i doubt the 400 missing from last season have gone somewhere else to watch or using the live visual stream more normally or via a dodgy stick.

I think lot's of people just feel disconnected. If you think of when we felt most connected to Pools in the last 10 years it was under Challinor, that combined with good results and the end of lockdown led to bumper crowds, but even the last 2 seaons we averaged above 4000 fans. The current owner seems unable of engaging fans, having regular forums or communicating through programmes or videos on social media. Yes this wouldn't prevent 'fairweather fans' from not showing up when the results aren't going so well, but it might help to retain some who still support when the times are tough but want to feel connected to THEIR club.
Currently I feel quite disillusioned with Pools, the club seems to be set up to tread water in the middle of the national league with everything set up for the next manager to either get us into the bottom of the playoffs or fail spectacularly and be sacked in the bottom half of the table. The next manager then comes in and does ok with a load of players they don't really want but then isn't given a chance by either the owner or the fans (who are quick to jump on poor results due to the league we're in - not that this is their fault or anything to slate them for). There's no plan, no communication and the owner clearly doesn't care as much for the club as we do, but also doesn't want to sell. There's nothing done to reward the loyalty of us fans, with raised season ticket prices and a lack of deals/discounts for home matches to try and attract floating fans back. It's for the best the current custodian moves on but it sounds like he will only do so on his terms which, if you believe the trust, are putting lots of people off.

Only Pools and the press would be stupid enough to use the state of our pitch as an excuse for poor performance and missing guilt edge chances in front of goal, if Cloughie was managing us he'd have us training on heavy pitches if not our own rather than G pitches at Durham so as to give us an advantage over the opposition, most other clubs would too, as other posters have mentioned earlier...madness.

the pitch looked poor from day 1 this season. you would think if our pitch was all that bad it should be an advantage to us not our opponents. thats if you sign the right players to play on it which many clubs do not.

This is a slow, extended decline rather like a plane that’s lost it’s engines gliding down…but you have to hit the ground eventually…. or get the engines working.

A passenger jet can glide for 70 miles if flying at 36000 feet, currently Pools are gliding, It will obviously crash unless the pilot can restart the engines as you say Snowy, let’s hope Pools can find a pilot who can get the engines started again.

Success comes with commitment, a commitment as far as I can see that is just not there……this has been going on for far too long.
If there’s such a thing as a football club defibrillator, we need one sharpish.

or just give em a bump start.

Exactly this--phoning it in from the top---the appointment of Lawrence was an absolute disgrace--obvious to the players we werent taking it seriously and that goes through the entire team--we are shite yet everyone seems to be having a very comfortable time

Its a bit of a chicken and egg though--and I say this was someone who I know is negative on here---in prior years when we had messageboards and were doing well people would be very defensive of the club--though I agree there was always some moaning

I think at the minute people have had enough and this is a way to get frustrations out--though as people have said it doesnt really help in the long run!

Considering the way the club is run, I think 10th in the National League is a major achievement, I'm not taking the piss, I really do. Is that positive enough ?

just shows how piss poor this league really is. just looking at pools themselves we should be real religation fodder and not talking about play offs as we were only a few weeks ago.