The Poolie Bunker

3 1 win.
3999 crowd.
UTP.

I’m on the train up tomorrow. After last seasons 4 - 0 embarrassment here in Woking, we should do better. As long as there’s no idiotic sending off. Unfortunately they are starting to improve just as our form goes off a cliff. 0-0

Depends which team turns up…?
The team we thought we were getting.
or…
The team we unwrapped…and disappointed.

i,ll do the best i can for pools. i,m going to miss this one and save my money for the mighty hornchurch. not watching on dazn either.

I fear the worst being the ever pessimist, if things start to go wrong the crowd will turn against the players and Clark.

As Snowy says, depends which Pools turns up. I am expecting a lot of running around and there wont be many goals.

Can’t believe we’re at must win after only five games but I think that’s where we’re at.
Score early and I think we’ll be okay and go on and win.

Pools will win!

At least I'll be able to jack in this 'get there at least 15 minutes before kick off' lark tomorrow and go back to strolling in at 2.55.

Home win today and worth a bet at 11/10.

do not think its at the must win stage just yet but just giving the fans value for money with a good performance will go a long way to keep most happy.

Looking forward to seeing the new lad Cole Deeming in action - hopefully he can make a difference in midfield.

And Campbell Darcy on the bench as he's been recalled from Spennymoor. He's competition for Benn as well as the centre-backs.

I agree, not so much critical regarding 3 points but rather getting a bit of the feel good factor going again.

Here’s hoping……

If we cannot win games such as Woking at home, there is not much chance of a playoff place.

Pools to win 3-1

Pools had better win 3-0 …we need an uplift sharpish.

Nathan fisher looks like he is keeping us in it, fingers crossed.

Welcome three points. Sounds like Woking did everything but score.

The three points and the win are welcome but worth remembering Woking are second bottom of the table having conceded 10 goals (nine before today) and here we are scraping a 1-0 win and coming close to drawing by the sound of it. So I am wondering if we have any hope of a play off place with these tactics. In spite of all the signings are we just a bang average NL team for yet another season? Dont mind beong corrected by those who were able to watch the game and can comment based on what they saw today.

That miss at the end has to be the miss of the season, how he didn't score I bet even he doesn't know

Woking had lots of chances in the second half to win it. We were worse when Clark made his substitutions. Game of many chances, but overall two very poor teams I thought.

Just got back from the match, I thought we were fairly decent. We created plenty of chances and should have had three or four quite easily. I get the feeling the nerves are getting to our forwards.
I thought Liam Gibson played very well, and so did Popov, he ran himself into the ground and fully deserved his goal. Nathan Fisher in goal was very good when he came on apart from one shocking pass straight into touch.
I'd liked to have seen a few more goals but it's a welcome three points which will hopefully settle us down.

I’ll be the negative one again.

We were promised a new style of football. Bromby and partners come in. ‘We’ll build a philosophy’ and then you recruit into that style and philosophy for the years to come.

This is like Keith Curle stuff. 442 and a gaffer just screaming at you to press, work harder and lots of swearing and vitriol with it. They’ve made their bed with Lee Clark which is so at odds with developing a fresh football philosophy. I would have expected a young, forward thinking manager. This is dinosaur, you heard nothing from the sidelines that is tactical. Clayton next to him, exacerbated by what he saw, but yes. This is YOUR team.

1,000 off the gate today and I’m not surprised. It’s bad and they do not instil hope at all. Maxwell was there overseeing it and again, I can’t help but question how this was the vision for a Pools style of play. Yet again, nothing nice to like in terms of chances created, passages of play and ultimately an extremely fortunate win.

Some folk might be happy with that, but I am watching it again going, Christ Pools are bad. Seen bad pools teams, good pools teams…. This one has a lot to do.

As I’m leaving the car park. Theres Luke Charman. With a vape in his hand, having a good old puff to improve his lung capacity before his return.

I didn't understand the sub of Deeming for Gibson. We looked comfortable with a back 5 and switched to a back 4 and looked all over the place with lots of gaps between defenders. Surely the substitution was Deeming for Sheron. Neither Rob Law or Micky Barron commented on it. In the end a lucky win and a more ruthless team would have had 4 or 5 against us the last 20 minutes.

Imagine this lot against the likes of Boreham Wood? Not a nice thought.

Neo Eccleston was outstanding. Popov had his best game in a Pools shirt. Fisher made a couple of good saves. The one at the death saved us 2 points.

That's the good news. The bad - we missed a lot of chances in the first half, and handed the game over to Woking in the second straight after we scored. The substitutions really were mystifying - we went down from 2 to 1 up front and somehow that weakened the defence? I'm not Gibson's biggest fan but he should have stayed on. And Merrick got himself crocked again and is probably heading for a long spell back at Chelsea while they sort him out.

Woking are a really poor side. It'll be a surprise if they don't spend the whole season struggling. Great to get the 3 points, but Kidderminster away on Friday will be a proper test. They're unbeaten in their last 5.

Far more measured than me. I watched it and thought it was terrible.

Clark will leave before November.

Rubbishing a win is generally considered to be poor form We struggled to beat a bottom 4 side, but not losing a home game has bought Clark a bit of breathing space, with the fans at least. There's bigger tests just down the line.

Nice to get three points but I’m glad to see it’s not just me who thought we were very much lucky and unimpressive overall.

We didn’t create an awful lot, Harris should’ve scored, Nolan put a couple of decent crosses in, but even the goal we scored I’m not quite sure how it actually went in - looked more than a bit fortunate from where I was stood.

Think Ilunga and Ecclestone played notably well, but otherwise not too much stood out.

We couldn’t control the game at all. You’d expect against mediocre opposition at home we’d be able to manage the game but our midfield looked lost once again. Maybe 442 doesn’t work well with controlling a game, but as said above if anything we looked less comfortable after the subs and change in formation!

We were very lucky to escape with a win there, and I hope no one will be fooled by this - it was luck, plain and simple. Ecclestone stopped one on the line when it looked like he didn’t know a lot about it, and at the end should’ve been a certain goal. I don’t know how their striker managed to fluff it, he was all alone with plenty of time to take a touch and bury it.

Again as said above, we will struggle against any of the top teams of this league the way things are going.

I thought there was only one team going to win until we took the lead. We were comfortably the better side and we were creating chances and really we should have put the game to bed 1st half.
Sitting back after taking the lead, and then the substitutions made us look an absolute shambles. Our "footballing identity" went right out of the window as we handed the initiative to them.
Bondo should be sent out on loan and young Josh Donaldson brought back to use as a sub.

Agree about Donaldson. He's scored 3 for Hebburn in the NLN already.

I’m analysing what’s in front of me. I don’t think it’s poor form.

I don’t see how a football consultancy can put this together and watch the last 3 games and say this is what they planned for. I’m sure there’s lots of meetings, briefings that led to this point.

And yet. 442. Sheron. Hunter. Lumped balls and very little in chance creation.

They’ve signed goals in the team yet he’s not getting a tune from them.

I would sack him and get Maynard now and watch the better style and football go from there. Although I wouldn’t have hired him in the first place.

But then, this is Maxwell’s vision of which Landon has paid a lot of money for. They will know more than me. We heard all the buzz words in the summer but it looks worse than it did last year.

I am personally very unimpressed with the opening part of the season but do firmly believe the team is far better individually than it was last year. Wrong manager. Wrong system.

Watching Boreham Wood v Carlisle, two very good teams with midfielders who actually get forward creating and scoring goals. Carlisle took the lead but Wood turned it round as they have in most games this season and lead 2-1 now.

Well done pools really entertaining game with end to end stuff from both teams . To be fair to woking probably deserved a draw but reserve keeper and defence just did enough to secure us the win . Mom Ecclestone

Allright we won and the three points are most gratefully received BUT:-

we could easily have lost at home against one of the poorest teams which suggests that if nothing changes it is going to be yet another season of struggles, missing out on the playoffs never mind promotion!

From the management side we appear to have gone backwards. Against Barrow the substitutes fitted in seamlessly and in no way detracted from the way the starting eleven played. Today things took a downward path that almost cost us points. There are so many aspects to our play that needs addressing: defence, attacking mid-field play, set pieces, substituting etc, etc. that I doubt there is enough time and cash to put things right before the top teams are out of sight. We can but hope though!

Aye, we won……..but that’s about it….

can anyone tell me what the differance there is between this season and the last apart from a few different players. i,d imagine the wage bill will be higher with all the new players and manager. if the ambition is to bore the fans and opposition into submission then the club could have saved some money and kept all of last seasons duds plus featherstone. in motoring terms we have swapped second hand marina,s for the same age allegro,s.

It wasn't a dull watch at all. That was the Sutton v Pools game, with next to no chances created by either side.

Yesterday Pools made (and missed) plenty of chances till Popov scored, then handed the ball over to Woking and said, 'You have a go.'

Things would have turned very ugly inside the Vic if Woking had got the draw or worse, nicked a win.

As it is, the crowd was down to 4,200, 1,600 less than the opening day. The unconvinced are already voting with their feet. Bet this isn't in Landon Smith's business plan for the season.

Lee Clark will be in big trouble if he doesn't get on an unbeaten run sharpish. On yesterday's evidence there's precious little chance of that happening.

It probably wasn't a dull watch for the neutrals, but after we scored it was for us. We should have had the game put to bed long before we scored and we'd have thoroughly deserved it.
Parking the bus and poor tactical substitutions put us severely under the cosh with no out all. It became attack Vs defence in their favour.

after just watching the repeat of the game on dazn it was not dull but most of the best bits of the game was the defending with a couple of tackles on our lads when they were clear by the same player plus ecclestons performance. think overall we shaded it and deserved the points. would be nice however to talk about good attacking football rather than defending. know its part of the game but its not what gets the crowds in.

The crowd looked well under 4200.

Yesterday was the first match this season not to be shown live by Dazn. Although the opposition wasn't that attractive logic would have it that the gate would be enhanced by a few armchair gadgies. The sudden drop off must have rang a few alarm bells.
It could be said that Poolies are prepared to turn up in their numbers but can't be fooled by bullshit or rubbish. Take heed Pools, they had a little poke at your ribs yesterday.

Remember what I said in May......No, no, no, no and never to Lee Clarke.

pools have about 3,000 regulars for saturday games. the rest who turn up are possibly looking for a reason to join those numbers. with the cost and the standard of football on offer its going to be hard to persuade them to stay. we need to be winning and winning easy playing attractive football with that never say die attitude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrmpXM1dgXc

Highlights, yet again provided by our opponents!
When will Pools put up the highlights?