The Poolie Bunker

It is amazing how Pools ALWAYS find ways to disappoint. Against Fylde, Harris came off and Hugill came on: then we lost. Same thing today. So pissed off.

Wonder how Wilde is going to sum this one up post match

Two difficult away games in which Pools do ok until the later stages when they succumb to pressure.
We need to play for 90 + minutes.

Useless, not fit enough to see the game out, not good enough to control the game when winning. Be a miracle if we manage to stay up with this lot.

Annoyingly I'd put £10 on the draw at 6/1 so really pissed off tonight.

I should be happy but I’m not . I feel like a robber who tripped over the neighbours dog and spilled his loot on to the lawn

Is Luke Charman made of fucking balsa wood or something? He's been here for ages and I can't remember the last time he's played four games in a row. Everything went to shit when he went off because we had no attacking outlet.

Still. Can't fault the effort the team made (second half) against a team that is light years ahead of them in terms of everything.

It doesn't help when we gift 1 or 2 goals per game and try and play catch me if you can. Let face facts.

We are massively in relegation form and our midfielders always get injured. I honestly can't see Wild being here after January, if he can't sell and shift some deadwood out in and bring in his own players.

I think this could be the season we go deeper into the leagues.

Every one of the subs weakened us, we certainly had them rattled and we disrupted their passing game for a long spell after halftime. Pushing the midfielders up closer to Harris made a huge difference.
Wild definitely needs to ship some of this lot out and get some fresh blood through the door.

The odds are stacked against the manager but if anyone can save us it’s him . We do need a miracle and some good weeler dealing though. If we finish 5 bottom he deserves the freedom of the town with this lot. We did our best but the simple fact is lack of quality

Back in the bottom 4 too

Decent performances with zero points = relegation. From now on we need points irrespective of quality of play.
We are in a survival situation and Wild needs a free hand to succeed.

I don't think so on that showing. We were organised, had a plan and the team worked their socks off. And they did well today with that.

The teams below us and several above us will get tanked by Boreham Wood. The quality they have all over the pitch is ridiculous (and they have a very small squad - but not injury prone - unlike us).

We just need to start winning against the poorer teams in this division - and there are plenty of them.

Pete Wild really rates Charman, but he's been in and out of the team with injuries ever since he joined Pools in 2024. There's nothing wrong with his attitude. so it looks like you're right about the balsa wood legs unfortunately.

We got smashed by Scunthorpe 4-1 who are below us. So who are these poorer/worst off teams out of curiosity??

All I can see is us winning a couple then losing 3/4 on the bounce....

I can remember us being 2 1 up at Southend about 41 years ago.
No Internet or live commentary.Just updates on the radio.
With 1 minute to go we got beat 3 2.

I was well n truly wounded.
But wasent expecting to become a regular occurrence for 4 decades on a regular basis.

No wonder i/we are mentally disturbed
UTP

I was at that Southend game. Borthwick scored two for us and we were 2-0 up. Richard Cadet then started taking the piss out of our defence and we lost 3-2. I think he Cadet got a hat trick. The game was in October/ Nov as I rember poppies being on sale. That was a real gut wrencher but being a Poolie you almost get used to it.

It will happen again.
I'm going for the Gateshead game in a few weeks.
2 0 up
Then lose 3 2 in injury time.

We just lost by one goal, away from home to the deservedly run away leaders of the league having scored three ourselves (and their penalty was as dodgy as heck).

Also - Liddle and Clayton were in charge for that Scunthorpe game the previous manager having walked a few days earlier having realised that he didn't have a bastard clue and was out of his depth. Spirits in the team probably weren't at an all time high.

Apart from all that, we had Fisher in goal. By all accounts he didnt make much effort to save the Scunthorpe shots.

We are much better now than we were then

John Borthwick was the worst player ever to wear a Pools shirt

Been to the game today and got to say we were unlucky to come away without at least a point.

First half we paid them far too much respect and we're chasing shadows. That said, their first goal was never a penalty - Cashman ducked into a boot. Rolled around like he'd been shot, had treatment and then for some unknown reason was allowed to stay on the pitch, got up and took the penalty, before celebrating like a complete twat in front of the Pools fans.

Referee was a complete joke all afternoon and gave us absolutely nothing, the linesman on the dugout side next to the Pools fans was an absolute disgrace- even worse than the ref. Several offsides not given for them and possibly their second goal should have been flagged. Looked like we might get to half time only 1 down but then conceded- again their player celebrated like a twat in front of the Pools fans.
Boreham Wood are clearly a very good team and well drilled- they are also exceptional at Shithousery with the ref pretty much buying it every time.

At half time, on the evidence of the first half- I feared we could be in for a cricket score.

Second half we came out and were a completely different team. We got a lot closer to them and caused them quite a few problems. First goal was a bullet header by Kouogan from a Nolan corner a couple of mins after half time.
The second goal came about after we won the ball high up from a defensive mistake, Harris played in Deeming who finished well with composure. The third goal was a absolute worldy from Miley- he looked up, just over the halfway line, spotted the keeper off his line and hit it- it sailed over the keeper and dropped into the net, right in front of the travelling Poolies- the away end went mental and Wild ran off up the touchline towards us. It was a surreal turn around, with less than 15 mins of the second half gone.

Charman was subbed on and only last about 10 mins after getting kicked on the foot/ ankle near their byline (a foul that shockingly wasn't given) and had was replaced by Popov. Hugill came on for Harris and we should have gone 4-2 up- Hugill won a really good header against their centre half to play in Popov who only would have had the keeper to beat, and the ref then blew for a foul. Popov also had a curling effort that their keeper managed to save.

They then threw everything at us and we held out until about 5 mins before full time when they equalised. Difficult to see what happened as it was down the far end from where we were. The winner came in the 3rd minute of 6 added on and was a real sickener- again difficult to see from our end.

The Pools players deservedly got a good ovation at the end from the travelling Poolies- despite everybody being as sick as fuck.

Pete Wild is an excellent appointment (at last) he really is all in and kicks every ball. It's just a shame he wasn't appointed in the summer instead on Clark.
Despite the current league position - on the evidence of today's second half performance we should be ok and think there will be at least 4 worse teams than us, come the end of the season.
Couldn't fault the players for their application today, they really did leave it all out on the pitch and can count themselves unlucky not to have got at least a point.
Hopefully Pete can now get a lot more work into them over the next fortnight, and also time for Charman's injury to settle down.

Didn't hear the attendance but can't have been more than 1500 at the game, with about 120 Poolies present.

Cheers Kettering, always great to hear a summary from someone who was there.

No worries mate

Also forgot to add that we could have had a late late equaliser to make it 4-4.
From a Nolan corner Sheron glanced a free header past the far post.

We've pretty much just gone toe to toe with the Champions Elect- we've set the standard now. Need to stay patient (yeah I know!) and let Pete work his magic. I'm a lot more optimistic about the rest of the season after today.

That's a excellent report.

However, the facts are, we are now 2pts adrift this week in the last relegation spot and we all know how difficult it can be to climb out of this position.
Only saving grace is we have two weeks off now for Wild to get into some players heads and hopefully could strengthen the squad in midfield..

Thanks for that, great summary.

Despite the result, after watching that match, we are going in the right direction now.

But we need the keeper situation sorting out.

In his post match interview Pete Wild sounds full of enthusiasm,
https://x.com/official_hufc/status/2116 ... deo/1?s=61

A defeat under Clarky were bad defeats.

A defeat under Wildy is good unlucky defeats.

Both produce zero pointage.

5 wins
15 defeats.

The Ammunity to defeats has to stop ASAP.

Next game a draw then
UTP

but seriously how many really expected us to be mote than one point better off after those last two away games. we will not be playing both away again and need to pick up points from the teams as poor as us to survive. from not looking like scoring we have scored 6 in three games but clean sheets seem a thing of the past now. good teams score and can defend , it seems either one or the other for us. biggest pity about yesterday were the 3 wasted goals that really have meant nothing including miley,s goal that he,ll bore his grandkids with that deserved some points for the team.

The substitutions were the reason we lost that match. 2nd half the midfielders got much closer to Harris and caused them problems by disrupting their passing game. Deeming was having his best game in a Pools shirt and shouldn't have been subbed imo. Are our lot not capable of playing 90 minutes?

Fitness seems the biggest issue. Wild obviously doesn't trust the starting 11 to play the full 90. Even when we have some control changes are made either due to fatigue or manager's tactical choice. I thought we were fortunate to hang on for win at Forest Green and almost expected us to throw it away like yesterday. Even against Hornchurch we almost blew it at the end. Marine finished stronger so there is defo some pattern emerging. I really like the manager and he seems to be the answer to our prayers but he can only trot out same excuses after defeats for so long before questions will be asked of him and his methods. November is a massive month and really we should be looking at winning every game otherwise we could be in trouble. Need reinforcements in asap as we have too many passengers out with long term injuries. Wont be able to ship these out on loan so who will be moving on?

well we so have players on the books who have never done 90 minutes in a pools shirt and it seems they never will with there substitution being arranged before the match ever starts. surely that limits the usefulness of the bench.

this is the first season in my memory of the national league where our opponents have finished the stronger. we might not have won or even drew games we were losing but were knocking on the door. no door anymore just curtains for them to get through. as for moving any player on we cannot until there contracts run out if they decide to stay put. is there money around for this and replacements with a big hope many are only contracted for his season and no longer. mckeown seems a strange one as when he did go off his injury looked something and nothing but we have heard little about him since never mind seeing him. given up on the other as i heard he has changed his surname to williams in respect.

The change in the laws of the game about players having to leave the pitch for 1 minute after treatment is causing a fair bit of confusion, but there is a clear exception:

"Fouls resulting in a card: If a player is injured due to a physical challenge where the opponent receives a yellow or red card, the player does not have to leave the pitch."

I didn't see the game so I'm assuming the Deeming yellow card led to the penalty? If not, the ref ballsed up.

Highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILV5JqIRsvc

Pete wild also questioned the competence of the officials in both our games this week. Isn't it about time that this subject was seriously looked at.
Now that just about every game down to and including the national league (including north and south) is recorded and is readily available surely it is about time that each match is scrutinized with a view of keeping the match deciding decisions, which are seen to be wrong, down to a minimum.
I can see the temptation for managers to take their team off the pitch in the face of increasing dubious refereeing decisions, becoming reality.
I would like to see Mr Kettering's match report compared to the referee's assessor's report. Maybe it would be sensible to have an official assessor's report which is independent and relied upon to be unbiased, produced and compiled by someone who is independent from control by the referees.

Yellow card was given for the penalty incident. My view yes it was a penalty, we would have appealed for one.
Miley's goal deserved the 3 points, poor marking for their late goals though even taking into account the deflection which fell kindly to their player for the winning goal.

If we were higher up in the league that would have been a great match despite the loss, when you are down the bottom, you need all the luck, decisions to go your way and more importantly, we need points on the board.

How come our rejected midfielders can come good at other clubs, look at Tom White yesterday and Tom Crawford with Alty, why is it when players come here they seem to always take a drop in form and struggle, is it we have a reputation for being a unambitious club with poor motivation principles?

have always said about football that no lucky team has ever been relegated and no unlucky one has ever got promoted. only the lucky person says you make your own luck as well.

there is a good reason for white as he is older than he was when he was a pools the same as trusty was who seems to be doing well for halifax. crawford had his good games for us also and unless you watch alty every week you do not know if he has improved either.

its hard to see where you could get a team of assesors from to assess match officials on a weekly basis that know the laws of the game as much as the current ones who are ex refs and do have training for the job. the problem starts before assessors ever see these people by the lack of numbers wanting to do the job, the wastage after starting and sometimes the wrong person being pushed by county fa,s. all these things have been going on for years and its hard to see things changing. can guarentee that there will be better refs on some rec this morning doing the sunday league but will never get on because there work dictates there availability to ref, they refuse to act as a 4th official, age is against them and most important of all there is nobody pushing them from the top and arranging fixtures for them with teams who always give refs a high mark to boost there position in that league. always found assessors to be informative anf helpful apart from one that i found just did not like me. we can only get whats available and make the best of it, but probebly the worst referee made less mistakes in a game than the players on the pitch, but some managers think they should always be blameless and get everything right. think all fans should give it a go if they are reasonably fit enough and might think twice then before they criticise. when they eventually do it will be justified though.

That just proves my point, birds of a feather stick together.
Your point about the worst referees making less mistakes than the players is totally irrelevant and out of context. Players have competition on the pitch, refs don't. Players have opposition on the pitch trying to make each other make mistakes, refs don't. Players have other players trying to kick lumps out of them, refs don't. The list goes on.
The one thing common within the ranks of referees, ex referees etc is the old chestnut is "you wanna try it , mate, give it a go and you'll probably think differently"

I wouldn't want to be a ref or lino at any level of the game, it's a thankless task but can be quite lucrative if you're lucky or selected for progress. The fees and expenses even at our level even aren't bad at all for a couple of hours.
The biggest issue for me is the fact that there's no real accountability and rarely do they ever admit they get things wrong, as evidenced by the numerous errors missed on the field and backed by their mates in the VAR studios.
If a player has a bad day or a few he gets dropped or moved on, if a manager isn't very good he gets sacked, if a ref isn't very good they might lose a game for a week then they're back to continue their often arrogance and incompetence. On the same theme, they don't accept criticism with managers and players who do criticise them usually getting punished, not do they have to face the media and explain their decisions. IMHO the standard of match officials is dropping at every level of the English game and because if the closed shop it's accepted by the FA and EFL.
Officials are not the main reason why we're in the relegation zone though.

The introduction of VAR was a perfect opportunity to have a separate body, other than a referee, to officiate. A specially trained person for that job but they chose to put another layer of referee in instead. Big mistake in my opinion.
The one area that they consistently seem to ignore is the concept of consistency. I'm not saying people with refereeing experience should be automatically ruled out but the selection should be wider than just referees.
One area that has been put forward is ex players but, for some reason, that has never had any success. An in depth exploration of how do we get ex players interested needs to be undertaken and don't just pack in when the first re action from them is no go. Make it attractive. Get them interested. Give them another avenue to explore if they want to stay in football and even have the notion that they would like to give something back to the game. Think outside the fecking box.

I guess it is all about money, especially in the top two or three divsions.

Totally agree the VAR officials should only do VAR not take a turn as is now the case, also agree ex players especially from the lower leagues would probably jump at the opportunity if the financial package was decent. There could be regional VAR hubs instead of it being centred on Stocksley Park.
The video officials for Rugby Union are not referees taking a turn, they're all specifically technical officials offering no favours or cover ups, you rarely here of controversy over their decisions and they're a damn sight quicker at their reviews than football is (probably because they have to check dozens of times to see if they can find a reason to support the infield ref rather than adjudicating against the rules).

Having just watched the Liverpool Vs Arsenal game, how did VAR not spot and alert the ref to the blatant penalty that should have been given for the shirt pill on Isak? Even worse imo is that VAR is not being used to punish the obvious simulation with players throwing themselves to the ground holding their faces when they've never been touched Gabriel and Macalister both being guilty.

Get back to basics, no one’s ever happy when things go against them…I liked the original format despite human error.

you could start up a real conspiracy theory about the reasons for that. foes seem odd though that these are offences that grew with the amount of foreign influence both on and off the pitch.