The Poolie Bunker

Just a heads up the nearest pub to the away turnstiles is The Three Pigeons which is about a 3 minute walk away. It's a family friendly pub selling hand pulled ales and lagers with a good selection of pies and pasties from a local butchers. From the turnstiles go to the bottom of the road and turn left the pub is 100 yards on the right.
It's cash only at the turnstiles but once inside both cash and card accepted for food and drink.
There is an ATM 40 yards from the away turnstiles at the Esso station on the main road.
Feel free to ask any questions

Fantastic little pub. Really enjoyed it the last time I went.

will feel odd tonight going to a game and paying for everything in cash. good for the shaymen, keep it up lads and make that the future again and not the past.

The home fans will be wound up by the return of Will Harris and maybe some of his ex-team mates will be too. Should be a spicy encounter that Harris will want to mark with at least one goal.

doubt his ex team mates will bother that much unless he has slagged them off sometime. its the fans who get wound up more that might get the odd player wound up. its not exactly going to be a cauldron of hate as there will not be enough of them for that. would be nice to do an eastleigh on them with a harris last second goal.

Dave Challinor doing co commentary with Rob Law tonight on Tees.

Think they'll try and wind Harris up tonight and try and get him sent off, it's what clubs do in this division, and with the shocking standard of the referees it could happen.

Very weak in midfield again.
Great saves from our keeper.

It can only get better 2nd half.

Watching the game hanging on here thank god for merrick.
They have over loaded our midfield

Fairly good game to watch . Chances for both sides but Halifax had most of the most meaningful chances although we did hit the bar.

Halifax look much more threatening, good job we got Merrick in goal.

Cam John gone off injured?

Anyone prepared to describe the goal? Good play by Halifax? Poor defence? A bit of both? The bloke on X cant be arsed to descibe it so I only know Halifax scored and the Sporting Life Video printer named the scorer. Other than that no clue.

Very poor defending

I think it was Gibson who dilly dallied on the touch line instead of clearing his lines, he then passed it inside directly to a halifax player who sqaured it to the unmarked goal scorer on the edge of the box.

Definitely a defensive error

Thanks for the replies.

This is dire.

What is his excuse going to be tonight, Friday was the refs fault.

This is 5 changes and sounds the same. Clueless tactics again from another average manager, who talks the talk.

Was it a case of midfield being over run again?

We've really struggled to retain the ball for more than 12 seconds.

Main reason we've struggled create.

Very dissapointing.

So far

Our keeper has done okay
Defence is sloppy
Midfield lacks creativity and energy
Strikers lack any conviction.

And we are ill disciplined, giving away stupid free kicks when we build any momentum.

And why are we giving the ball away so cheaply?

And why do Halifax seem to be so much quicker and have much more energy?

Those looking for a playoff place will be very disappointed if we carry on playing like this it’s darling terrible we look clueless

MATCH REPORT

Merrick excellent

Clarke will gaslight you for the rest

Boring…..
A ‘team’ of identikit players all performing in the same functional way..
No flair, no style, just lots of running and an inability to pass a ball.
This is worse than last season…?
Oh dear.

I naturally assumed Blue Circle cement are sponsoring our boots.

Worst performance of the season.

No organisation, no sign of any obvious tactics other than running around like headless chickens, clueless.

Gibson poor, done for pace in first half and got a booking, bad mistake for the goal, nearly gave way another one.

Bondo the best example of a headless chicken, seems determined to get himself booked or worse every game, dreadful header with a great chance.

Defence overall very poor, they were nearly clear on goal on several occasions with a. Simple ball down the middle.

No creativity in midfield.

Apart from that, they were OK.

Very poor performance again . Lots of possession but as usual no end product or creativity . Interesting to see what Clarke says post match as I’m seeing no improvement . Yes we work hard but if you can’t score goals you can forget the playoffs . Mid table maximum based on what I have seen and injuries piling up.

A shame the 650 Poolies go home disappointed. Two wins, three defeats, typical Pools. A lot of decent players signed but we dont see capable of winning games. Clark needs to do something to stop the rot because the longer it goes on the early optimism disappears.

No structure.
Just hit n hope balls.

Not even our Superfans can brush this under the carpet and criticise critism.

Probably in the morning

Yes I think it's worse than last season. Sheron the worst player on the pitch without a doubt, just hoofing the ball anywhere up the pitch. Tonight we had chances that should have been put away even without playing any decent football. Other teams always look so much faster and more controlled than us.

Goals for 4, the lowest in the league says it all.

As it stands we are going nowhere. Will it get better, it better get better or we are heading for a survival fight. I usually give it ten games minimum but this "team" (????) are rubbish. Running about like a bunch of blue arsed flies is achieving the square root of sod all.
I don't know how much money we have thrown at this project so far with Bromby and their recruitment but, for me, this team is no better to watch than what we had last season and there needs to be a massive sea change for us to get even close to last season's effort.
In the recent past the current performances would have had everybody from the Chairman downover getting pelters.
SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY DIE HARD POOLIES MADE THE EFFORT TO GET THERE TONIGHT.
Message to Hartlepool United........You owe them one, you really do.

Ok lets try and be objective here. Obviously Clark wont have told the players to run about like blue arsed flies with no plan or structure. So those who saw the game, what did you think Clark was trying to do which obviously didnt work? I would be very interested in reading people's ideas.

A lot of pointless running to no purpose…..school kids football.
No organisation, no one stood out (Keeper excepted god bless him ) it was just tedious running that never remotely looked like changing anything .

Oh well looks like we are fooked unless Clark is sacked and replaced by someone who can get the team organised and playing to some kind of plan.Is Feaths still in the building? I know we were poor under him but at least there was some sembelance of organisation except on the occasions he didnt see coming.

Well I saw the game and if Clark didn't tell them to run about like blue arsed flies, that is what they did. He does put a lot of emphasis on the press and physical effort though, doesn't he??? No structure, no purpose, no passing phases, just hoofball and hope. Their woeful performance did produce chances but, as is the case recently, those chances were spurned.
Gibson actually created the chance for their goal, the winner.
We hit the bar (Hugill) but unfortunately we didn't create the chance for him, their defenders did, just like the Sutton defence did for McKeown.
Lots to do, Ozzy, I'm afraid.
Hate to be writing this but that's what comes across to me. I'd much rather be waxing lyrical about our silky football and clinical finishing, which I will be doing if and when it is forthcoming.......promise.

Fair comment. I just keep thinking there must be some sort of plan that maybe needs tweaking or even re-writing to start getting results. Maybe I am daft trying to find some rhyme or reason in the chaos. I get the impression the players are trying but maybe the tactics are just not right for them. I wonder if Clark just doesnt understand National League football?

Thornton looked our best midfielder and the only one who has an ounce of technical ability.

What do people expect when you hire a manager who’s resume outside of 15 years ago includes spells in Sudan, Oman and a basket case in Blyth Spartans. He’s from the North East though so he gets the club.

Guys a clown making Jack Hunter who couldn’t get a kick last season our captain. Recruitment is a joke. Signed some top forwards sure, but still relying on the cack midfield from 3 seasons ago to feed them.

Landon needs to take the blame for signing off on all of this. Talks a load of good game being in America with his trading cards, giving away free pints and putting ghastly AI signs/tifos all around the ground but on the pitch nothing so far to suggest that we’ll be better off than under that ghoul Raj Singh.

If Clark is our manager and we still don’t have any decent midfielders through the door by the end of the next couple weeks another season is over.

Looking for a logical excuse, without clutching at straws, the problem could be a transitional one insomuch as we have recruited a decent bunch of individual players whose previous exploits are plain to see BUT as everybody and his brother knows, football is a team game and we are still a way off achieving that status of being a team.
As for the manager, I haven't so far given an opinion on his appointment and I'm still in wait and see mode but results are the only factor that determine our progress or lack of it. So far the position isn't what we want or the owner wants and, as I said ealier, it has to get better. That is down to him.

you carnt Blame Landon he doesn't know much or if anything about non league football so he has hired a consulting firm and as its turning out neither do they,

Only decent players are the keeper, Harris and Nolan but Harris and Nolan aren’t showing it.

Haaland would have trouble showing his quality if he had Sheron, Hunter and Miley passing him the ball. Anyone who runs a “consultancy” firm in football should have been able to look at our issues the last couple of seasons and seen that the midfield was the issue. We had a striker who outscored Harris playing for us and couldn’t get him the ball to him either because we had no midfielders above Sunday league level.

Very well said.

The book has to stop with someone, and Landon is owner of the club. So unfortunately, as nice of a guy he comes across, that someone is him.

I know very little about American football, but even I could look at a coach who’s experience includes Sudan, Oman and a level that is the equivalent of plumbers and milkmen and come to the conclusion he’s probably not going to succeed coaching an NFL team.

What does him liking trading cards have to do with bromby and partners appointing a clueless manager who all us fans even questioned when his name was put out? Using him giving away pints and the signs against him when 95% of fans praised both things as recently as 2 weeks ago… our squad is quite clearly better then what we had under Raj and even tho I agree with Clark and the midfield, Landon said he didn’t know much about football and had appointed people who supposedly did to run the club, he can’t do much more then that in my eyes! He’s gave the recruitment team a budget and they’ve clearly fucked it by the looks!

The point is the club putting out all this PR about the club going global and putting stupid AI battle cry poems on the stadium shouldn’t buy good will when you can’t get it right on the pitch.

Just because he hired someone else to do the signings doesn’t mean Landon is free of any blame. He signed off on them, he signed off on this manager. The book stops with him. Most football club owners are clueless and increasingly at the top level many are clueless Americans. And when they (or the people who they hire) mess it up, they rightfully are criticised. Just because Landon has done some PR stuff doesn’t mean we can’t blame him.

What does he get blame for though? Hiring a recruitment firm of ex players and people very experienced in working in football for many years? If they say we want Clarke or xyz player as he’s said he isn’t fully clued up on football so why would he go against them? I know what your saying about Clark in particular’s resume it’s not the best to say the least but someone with no experience in football at all never mind our level isn’t going to go against what multiple experienced footballing people in this country are saying. He’s hired them to do the job as he’s admitted he couldn’t do it himself, they looked to have fucked it.