The Poolie Bunker

It sounds like the players put in a shift tonight thus avoiding the embarrassing hiding that many of us hsd predicted. Good to see a defender, McNally on the scoreboard and also the new lad Caton score on his debut. We can't do anything about dodgy officials, stuff like tonight happens regularly as we have seen in the past.

York are obviously a big spending side in this Godawful league but that is clearly what is required in order to reach escape velocity. Let's hope that for once, just once, Feaths and the players can repeat the effort and commitment that they must have put into tonights game on Saturday. Sutton also played tonight so the usual 'tired' excuses will be unacceptable in the event of another Aldershot-style debacle.

Differences between Pools and York apart from money spent on the likes of Stones and others.
1. They are consistent: performing well week in and week out. Pools perform well sometimes but are woefully inconsistent
2. Because they are consistent they cross the white line expecting to win; Pools dont.
3. York have an excellent proven manager who has inculcated a style of play and a preferred formation but York players are good enough to adapt. Pools haven't, dont have and can't.

Having noted all that, Pools players and staff deserve praise for not being over awed and pushing York right to the wire. If only Pools played like that most of the time instead of now and then, I would be confident of a play off position.

Pretty decent effort against one of the best teams in the league. Feathers set us up again with Reid on his own upfront . We let them play soaking up the pressure . There first goal was a good one to be fair. We then had some good spells down the left which resulted in a few corners which were well taken . We scored as a result . Our tactics stayed the same in second half not taking the game to them . They scored with a rare mistake in defence as we lost a bit of concentration . Feathers tactics still remained defensive and he took Reid off after 80 mins and brought the new striker on . Rather than going 442 keeping Reid on. After 88 mins Feathers decides finally to be more attacking and we score a goal from our new striker whom I thought looked ok. 2-2 would have been a good result . Unfortunately after 100 mins ref gives them a soft penalty for what reason. So in summary we didn’t play bad and a 5-4-1 fornation to start was ok but still thought Reid should have stayed on and Brown and Johnson should have come on earlier . Saw Liddles interview yesterday and reading between the lines Feathers is feeling the pressure . Hopefully with the new striker we can be more bold playing 442. 5-4-1 ok against the top 7 but not against the rest . Can’t fault the attitude of the lads who played last night . I watched the game this morning .

If we just keep playing like that but with two up front we should be ok…. Caton up front was a lot more combatative then Reid up front and prepared to mix it…which livened things up.
Always been spawny beggars have York.

2 up front imo would of got us into the play-offs.

Suicide tactics.
Unlucky result but creation wise York destroyed us. Turning point when Campbell missed that sitter just before half time.

Surely enough evidence now that Smithy needs a 2 up front manager to start with for game 1 of next season.

Club hangs massively in the balance.
Let's swing it in the right direction with a basic decision in May.

UTP.

Agree can’t really start the new season with Feathers in charge . The Sutton game is an ideal opportunity to go 4-4-2 with the new guy and Reid and bringing Johnson on after 60 mins to play with Reid. Johnson needs game time now in a 4-4-2 format to improve his confidence . Neither of the strikers look comfortable as a loan striker . Feathers please be more bold and play to the strikers strengths . 5-4-1 is too defensive . 4-5-1 is ok as long as we have wingers and 3 either side

its a long time since i have been more annoyed at the end of a game. did my nut at that penalty decision that even the york commentators did not know why it was given. told her in the kitchen to fuck off when she said its only a game. 10 minutes of added time only for it to be given in the 111th minute without reason to add the minute on anyway. thought myself it would be 8 maximum to be added and i,m not usually far out with that. i,ll give the players and managers stick when they deserve it but most gave everything they had last night and deserved a point. hope they put it quickly out of their minds and see a similar performance against sutton with a homer of a rf for a change.

up the dale. lets have efl football back at spotland. after last night i hope pools put in an aldershot performance against those lancashire lads to put a nail in yorks automatic aspirations.

4. York have had a multi-millionaire owner who has spent a fortune on the team in the last 2 seasons.
5. They finished last season on 96 points but didn't go up, so went out and bought a bunch of even better players for this campaign.
6. York have a squad of 32 players, so much quality that they can afford to loan little old Pools 3 players who were regular starters for them last season.

The comparison you are playing down is that York are in a different league to Pools in terms of resources. I hope they do go up and that Landon Smith finds his cheque book so Pools have a decent chance of promotion next season.

Also, even though they backed their manager last season and through the start of this one they quickly replaced him when it was obvious he wasn't getting the best out of squad. Does anyone think Negative Nicky is getting the best out of our lot?

Love listening to Roy Keane on various podcasts and on Sky Sports. Has a clear understanding on what it means to have a winning mentality and culture. They spoke about Spurs and ‘Spursy’ and how only a change of ownership there will turn their near misses into being winners. Obviously different levels at play here but still very apt for what Pools have suffered with & how a change of ownership needs to be a change in what it means to be a part of Pools…

Made me think of Pools and again, how only Dave Challinor has managed to instil a win at all costs attitude at our football club since IOR.

Seen far too much in the form of celebration due to performance, tactics, and a lot of excuses on what is yet another defeat last night. It’s York City ffs, not an FA Cup tie versus a team in the divs above. We left with 0 points. Conceded 3. But don’t worry, we’re proud of the boys.

Another old football adage - let the football do the talking. Well as far as I can see it’s been horrid for the large majority for Pools. If as rumoured we sign another 2 players, I see no way Feaths can hide behind not having the players ready to play his way. He simply refuses to play with 2 or 3 forwards and we create absolutely nothing game upon game.

Running around, effort, competing…’ that’s your job’ as Keano says. Lots of good football clubs have failed under a deluge of money and spend on their squad. Lots of football clubs have been successful on much less but with the right manager, tactics, mentality and culture. We’ve been starved less one man who said himself did more than what any manager should do - DC. Lose the game, lose your day off. The problem we keep hearing is the players don’t 1) believe they can enter the top 7…. 2) only show up for big games… 3) don’t have the players to play attacking football

Well, it’s time to cut your losses and find those who can do all of those. Alongside hiring management and staff who deliver that message and tactics very well so we win a lot more football matches consistently than we do now.

It’s time to go and deliver a true step change for us please Landon. It’s ’just pools’ but it’s also in the national league where we are still a big club. Go and bloody behave like it (consistently) including getting a manager for next season who is used to winning cultures & has demonstrable experience of delivering them in dressing rooms. I’m not Feaths out - keep him on the coaching staff - but Hughes, Maynard, Savage, Garrard - all on a different planet to Feaths unfortunately & have a background in WINNING. Featherstone represents too much of the past for us to move forward effectively and I am of the opinion a proper, previously successful manager will get a better tune from our current and future squad.

Staff, boardrooms who have failed, again, needs change. I’m looking at the usual suspects here as we all know. We’ve moved to a new model of recruitment, what does that say about our existing lead recruitment strategy?

Levels / mentality / attitude all need to go up for Hartlepool United’s new era. We’ve got one chance to do this, now let’s go do it.

he does when the players themselves decide to play to there best. if they can do it at rochdale and york then why not at woking or the vic.

Last night on ITV local late night news there was a cock up. The lady news reader at the end of her report did a little bit about the York/Pools game and then said the HUFC were now sitting second in the league behind Rochdale! Obviously getting the two teams mixed up, or her script writers were.

No! It was still 1-1 when Feaths brought Caton on for Reid. York were at home and on a 20 game unbeaten run. Pools were so short of players we had Hunter at centre back and Daly at wing back. it looked like we were on a hiding to nothing but you could feel the self-belief growing in the Poolie end the longer the game went on. The main problem second half was Daly and Charman couldn't stop York from slinging cross after cross into the Pools box. It felt like sooner or later one of their playesr would get on the end of one. When they did Feaths chucked loads of attackers on to try to get something out of the game. shit or bust. When Caton scored our end went mental. A draw was nothing less than Pools deserved. The right tactics against a top team, like the win at Rochdale. The amount of time added on and the penalty was a farce. Our players must have been as gutted as the fans.

I agree with a lot of what you say there, Hogans. The situation with a threadbare team is inexcusable, it was a valiant effort, but we still shipped 3 and left with nowt. 2nd half they did sling cross after cross in, it was inevitable. The fans were brilliant too.

A draw would have been fair but you make your own luck and York made theirs.

As Feaths said himself - Sutton is now must win. But just look at the run of our last 7 games of results and performances. Are you convinced?

But the point is, York got shot of their manager because he couldn't get the best out of his squad consistently, has Fev ever managed to get the best out of our lot or anywhere near for even 2 games in a row. And let's not forget he masterminded the home cup and trophy losses to Gainsborough and the mighty Anstey Nomads too.
We should be looking to get next season's manager installed asap because it simply shouldn't be Fev.

100% agree. Why wait. Do it now. Go and get Pete Wild.

after seeing the attitude from the players last night i,d be crapping myself as a sutton fan who knows nothing about pools. problem is there is nothing to say that they will be back to square one with a could not care less attitude just going through the motions. shows how giving 100% in a game can make up for any lack of ability players might have. its the least the fans deserve off them no matter what the result is on saturday. more proud of the players than any result this season bar rochdale last night which made the result even harder to take.

Fully agree with every word, I would have no issue with Feaths staying on at the club as he obviously loves Pools and is fully committed. Happy to see him as first team coach or assistant manager, call it what you will but he's not a No. 1 in my opinion although that's not to say that he won't progress to that status in the fullness of time. However, I think Feaths will remain in place for the remainder of the season regardless of how much noise emanates from social media as Landon appears to be very much a man of his word.

There is NO way that anybody within the club should be happy/ok with last night, Never ever be happy with a defeat even if you believe the performance was good.

Gutted for the lads. Very unlucky not to get a point. IMO against the likes of York the tactics were correct.

But it was a good performance and you will never convince me that if that "melee" had happened at the away end, a penalty would have been given !

100% it wouldn't. Shame because the ref was decent up till the point he remembered York were supposed to win He must have been as surprised as York that we got the second equaliser.

If you re read my post you will see I acknowleged that money had been spent on the York team. The good thing is that despite the vast gulf between York and Pools, we gave them a damn good game and they were extremely fortunate to get the points. If only Pools could play like they did last night on a more regular basis.

every game has a new problem for teams. feel we always do better against teams who try to play football and attack than ones who just sit back and use all the shithouse tactics available to them. especially at the vic where for most of the game we look clueless how to break them down.