The Poolie Bunker

He says Thompson has left the club because his one month contract is up. Jack Earing has gone back to Barrow because his injury is an eight week job.No other injuries so I guess Charman and Harris substitions must have been tactical. He reckoned the first Fylde goal was offside and we should have had nailed on pen was Charman was fouled in the box. He was pleased by the effort of the players.

1st half, we looked comfortable, definitely a lot fitter and Charman and Harris were a threat. It should have been a pen for Charman, he was tripped in the box. 2nd half we allowed Fylde to keep knocking it about in midfield and was only a matter of time before they equalised, although it looked offside to me. After that they scored on the counter from our corner, all at sea with too many players not able to get back to defend the situation. Fylde were tidy in possession, we were not a threat at all in the 2nd half. It wasn't terrible but at the same time we still don't seem to have a midfield capable of winning the ball and having any composure. I can see that Wild will avoid any relegation threat but we will not be anywhere north of mid table.

Deffo penalty not given.

Yeah deffo penalty, but that's the standard of refereeing in this league unfortunately. Fylde were much the better team and deserved to win. Apart from dominating the midfield, which has happened to us in every game we've played, they were dangerous on both wings, Ilunga is not a full back, in the first half especially he was allowing the winger to get far too many crosses in. With Charman and Harris going off we looked very poor upfront. Think with this squad we have found our level, just clear of the relegation zone.

Defensively we were good, which may sound odd….but in midfield we were non existent, no creativity, an inability to beat their man …..we nearly pulled it off, but the scoreline does not reflect the game itself by any stretch of the imagination.
We definitely need a keeper, because the present confused situation is a weal link…constant chopping and changing is not ideal by any stretch of the imagination..
Disappointed, but there’s organisation showing through at last

It was a reasonable performance in that we held a good team for 75 mins and looked better organised. However, mostly, Fylde played us of the park . We didn’t have a midfield and couldn’t string more than 2 or 3 passes together. Still think we look like a northern league team with a potential to avoid the drop. However, I do see improvement and Wilde is the only manager who has the awareness and technical know how to keep us in this league. If we managed to get mid table for me it will be an incredible achievement . Nice to see Will Harris finally getting into gear.

we came in at h/t deserving the lead. second half showed our failings. a little improvement overall on the pre wild days and nobody really expected a full 90 minutes like the end of saturdays game. still annoying though to see us going backwards from last season and a promoted club looking as if its going the right way. as for the pen, well we all know a foul would have been given anywhere else on the pitch and just goes to show how small balls these officials actually have to take the easy route.

Pete Wild's interview confirms what we could see with our own eyes - Pools were set up to defend deep and hit them on the break. It worked perfectly in the 1st half and Pools should have gone in at half time more than 1 up. Reminded me of Pools beating Rochdale 2-1 at their place last season - same tactics from Featherstone in that game.

Fylde didn't equalise until there was 13 minutes of normal time left. Not sure why Pools lost their heads after that - it would have been a good away point. Pools had Hunter on the bench and instead Wild brought on Nolan for Deeming. Deeming was tiring but had done a lot of good work getting his foot in and breaking up Fylde's play, which is not Nolan's game at all. Suspect he came on because Hugill and Popov offered no outlet compared with Harris and Charman in the 1st half. Anyway a mistake.

the positive to take is last season we might have drawn the game but would have only drawn last saturday though giving us 1 extra point on what last seasons haul might have been.

I've noticed a few positives in the way we lose now.
Very strange.
Will This Saturdays defeat be at least it wasent 4 0!!

not really. we are like a starving man who would love to eat an outdated aldi item that the waitrose shopper would turn its nose up about.

We're totally incapable of holding the ball up when under pressure, Borehamwood will rip us apart if we take a defensive approach on Saturday. Can't understand if we don't practice that in training, holding the ball up and running into space then playing keep ball, you don't have to go forward, your hopefully leading, you frustrate the opposition and make them make the mistakes, it's part and parcel of the game, we just return possession constantly and expect to hang on it's suicide tactics. Or our players basically ain't good enough to do that?

Probably our worst season in history for Ball Retention.
We probably don't keep the ball for more than 20 seconds for more than 5 times in 94 minutes.

Get your stop watches out on Saturday.
Hot Potato ball.

yes, its true that everytime we look to play a positive forward pass its a pass to our opponents. try the tactic of passing to them and we might retain possession.

And yet, Wild's tactic of Pools playing long balls out from the back and catching Fylde on the break worked really well in the first half - we should have gone in 2 or 3 up at the break

Fylde probably had 70% or 80% of possession, but for a long time did nothing with it - passing the ball around backwards and sideways. If they had an actual crowd to play in front of, the cries of "Forward!"would have been ringing round the place just like they did at the Vic when Lennie or Limbrick or Grayson or Feaths was manager.

Win a game and your tactics are good, lose and they're shite. Hasn't it always been that simple from a fan's point if view?

For some people it’s so simple…no middle ground or discussion..just black or white.

I go by what happened.
Not what could of happened.
The football industry is results based for the rewards of cup runs promotions etc or relegations and early cup exits.


Anyhow it was a 3 1 defeat. The 14th out of 19 games.

Wildy saying something in his Borehamwood preview interview that his discussion with Smithy is that it's a 3 years job.
Presumably regarding a return to the EFL.
I would settle for that.
I've got to say his patter is outstanding. But will that transfer to success!!???!!??

UTP

We need to up our game in the next 31 league games as currently we're averaging a point per game (could be less after Saturday) and that equates to 46 points which was 5th bottom last season, but the season before both Maidenhead and Dagenham went down with 52 points as did Borehamwood the season before (23/24) and look where they are now.

[quote="kevin pooles gloves"]I go by what happened.
Not what could of happened.
The football industry is results based for the rewards of cup runs promotions etc or relegations and early cup exits.


Anyhow it was a 3 1 defeat. The 14th out of 19 games.

Wildy saying something in his Borehamwood preview interview that his discussion with Smithy is that it's a 3 years job.
Presumably regarding a return to the EFL.
I would settle for that.
I've got to say his patter is outstanding. But will that transfer to success!!???!!??

That is a question that I have considered too KPG. I sincerely hope that Wild's 'outstanding patter' doesn't degenerate into 'he talks a good game' which is all that so many of his predecessors were capable of. What is of more concern is Wild's latest statement that there is no 'wriggle room' in respect of introducing new players unless more fringe players can be offloaded. This would appear to represent a contradiction of Landon Smith's statement of just one week back ie 'We have already supported the manager with new signings, and that will continue'.

I think most of us would agree that the squad as it stands is destined to struggle to keep afloat of the relegation zone without strengthing the midfield at the very least. For the club to continue to even flirt with relegation to the NLN goes against everything that Landon Smith has done and is yet to achieve since he took over the club.

And Fylde.
Both them and Borehamwood doing well this season after being in division 6 North n South last season.

If we do go down I'd expect us to re-group fairly quickly and go for the double promotion back to the EFL by that method.

We need to get that winning mentality back which breeds confidence and a better team spirit and it's guaranteed our support will still be good because that's the dna nowadays of being a Poolie.

This current shit ain't for me like from Wildy.
Talking a brilliant game.
Blameing Referees.
Takeing positives out of defeats.

Haveing said that offload all the our of contract shit in May and stick with Wildy whether it's div 5 or div 6 north next season.
UTP

It seems like Radgy has Skinted Smithy major style unless his business skills are doing well on the West Side of the pond

Smith is awful & a complete dick.
What’s all this diving late when there’s a poor shot.
He’s trying to be clever & it always comes back to bite him on the arse.
Totally unprofessional.

One thing to say in defence of goalkeeper Smith is that he has not played for months so he was bound to be a bit rusty which we saw on Tuesday. I dont know of course, but I wonder if they thought Thompson would play until the last minute so Smithy was unexpectedly thrust into the starting line up and was a bit like a rabbit in the headlights?