The Poolie Bunker

A big thanks to Mr I for keeping this place up and running (it's a home away from home for me and I'm sure a great many other Poolie exiles).

I think York are going to be over confident tomorrow (and rightly so based on our last outing). But this is Pools and if there's one thing we're good at it's confusing people with our lack of consistency (both good and bad). So I'm going for Pools 1 York 0. And it won't be pretty.

They’re as bad as we are, beaten at home by Solihull, hammering Carlisle, drawing with FGR then falling to bits against Scunthorpe, 3-2 defeat or 0-0.

I wish, but I can't see any scope for optimism as things stand.

Untested keeper - hope he's another good'un.

The back 4 picks itself - Benn, Kouogun, Parkes, Topallaj - and Parkes is crocked and won't last the full game. We finished the Carlisle game with Sheron at centre back and he was at fault for their second goal - except he's not a centre back, so the manager was at fault on that one!

The midfield is OK up to a point- Miley and Francis both had good games against Carlisle, but up front Johnson will no doubt start again and give York's centre backs a very easy afternoon. Charman works hard but is a poor finisher.

Can't see us scoring, can't see York not scoring. Match postponed would do me.

A postponed game wouldn't be the end of the world, given our injury crisis.

I'm normally quite optimistic but should the game go ahead think we'll buckle 1-3 with Joe Grey on the score sheet for them. Oliver with a late consultation goal for us.

Crowd 4851
925 Yorkies in attendance

If the game goes ahead Pools unbeaten home record will fall. No reason for optimism given the injuries and forwards who are totally not up to the job. A comfy 3-0 to The Minstermen.

Think we're in for a drubbing, no John, McNally, Cartwright, winger or creative midfielder. Not going to be nice to watch.

Hunter should have been put at CB, Madness on the touch line.
Sheron is a shadow of the player he was last year, Again Madness from the touchline.

Totally agree, CM pairing has to be Miley and Sheron whenever they are fit, playing Sheron in defence weakens us defensively and in midfield. Stupid decisions by managers this season and last.

if we need an emergency central defender hunter is the better option and sheron as a full back. feel for the team today with possibly the weakest team on paper playing the game.

[quote="accrington fan". feel for the team today with possibly the weakest team on paper playing the game.[/quote]

Going to the match. At least you can shout at the ref from the stands. Watching on DAZN is purgatory when Pools are outclassed.

Going to the match. At least you can shout at the ref from the stands. Watching on DAZN is purgatory when Pools are outclassed.[/quote]
well my dogs regularly rush out of the room when i,m watching on DAZN. Think they,d better get out before ko once the team is announced and that walker is playing yet again.

Commentary available on BBC Radio York.

Listening to the live commentary the commentators can’t understand why Pools are allowing so many crosses into their box ?

big improvement in workrate even if york look the better side. keeper keeping us in it who looks as good as cartwright so far.

We were the better footballing side by miles today but it counts for nothing if you can't score goals. York were mainly playing long ball, can't see them topping the league on that showing, we definitely should have been stopping the crosses coming in.
Goalkeeper had a great game.

The defeat was no surprise but Pools gave it a right good go, especially in the first half. Francis, Charman and Daly ran themselves into the ground and paid the price a bit second half, while York brought on 5 substitutes as good as their starting 11.

The young lad on loan did well, no idea why he didn't feature at Carlisle, and the new keeper did very well, though he's not going to come for crosses the way Cartwright did.

Maybe the most encouraging thing is the way Oliver took his chance - 2 goals now from the bench. If he gets fully fit and stays fit him and Reid could be a dangerous front two.

Joe Grey got clattered a few times as a welcome back and made no impression on the game - very reminiscent of his form for Pools for most of last season.

Grey looked like a 17 year old having a first team debut, totally irrelevant.
His malaise last sea has apparently travelled down the A19 to keep him company.
Injuries did for us today and any luck in front of goal has yet to appear.
The new keeper was brilliant..full stop.

Playing against a team whos chairmans family are worth £800m who paid £350k for a striker Pools had four nailed on starters missing, yeah the new goalkeeper played well but are a couple of training sessions enough to bed him in to a team?
I went to york v scunny during the week as my cousin ( Hartlepool lad born in Fordyce road) is part owner and Scunny dismantled them on budget similar to pools. I was e sat on a table next to Julia Uggla and said that was a bit of a surprise and she said son Matt will no doubt be organising bringing in more players im not sure if she was joking or not but thats what Pools are up against.

think every pools players put a good shift in but if they cannot do it in a game like that they never will. at the end of the day we got zero points again and if wasn,t for the new keeper the margin of defeat would have been greater. will they be as interested though next saturday playing a much poorer side than york. the new outfielder had a few simarlarities as francis, both jacks outside the box but little when they got into it. know there are injuries but feel we have reached out normal league position. without loads of money thrown at the team thats where we,ll stay.

After August , Before the injuries we changed our approach to games, Deciding to play counter attack mainly.
Now i have nothing wrong with that when we are playing above average teams, Nothing at all.
Deciding to play 1 up top, previously 2. Now Johnson has not been at his best but 2 up top seemed to work.

But it seems now to be the norm no matter who we are playing (H or A), What happened at the end of August?

surprised no one hasn,t mentioned that awful ref we had. know its a regular topic but for me he was the worst of the worsed. 3 minutes added to the first half but only a little more after the subs and there keeper constantly time wasting and kicking the ball out of play. after that 3 i expected at least double in the second half.

Yes the officials were poor, it seems to me that most linos nowadays either don't help or are told to concentrate on offsides and throws only. The obvious shirt tugging by the York players wasn't pulled up a single time. Think we had a equally dubious penalty shout for handball, they got the pen we didn't (neither was a pen imo).
Be interesting to see if the ball actually crossed the line for their first goal.
Ref didn't lose us the game though, yet again we were outdone by a side which created the better chances and was more clinical in finishing than us. Our decision making and composure in and around the box is shocking.

true, if we had the best officials the world had ever seen and they leaned towards us i doubt the result would have been much different. shows again when you have a natural but possibly past it goal scorer on the pitch a goal ill go in. it is what it is i,m afraid and all we can do is carry on supporting and hope grayson somehow gets financed in a way he, the present players and the fans deserve to improve the obvious.

He,s not going to get extra dosh from the owner.

SG said in August that when the EFL window closes we would be at it, more or less.
And when the window closed we brought in 2 Free Agents.

Read into that what you will, But imo the money has dried up!

We can't even beat average NL clubs with the current excuse for a strike force let alone the likes of Carlisle & York. They will probably struggle to penetrate the Gainsborough defence - and an embarrassing 1st round cup exit will represent the final straw for many of the remaining fans I fear. Something needs to change otherwise it's going to be season over time - and probably curtains for Grayson.

What "remaining fans" would they be? Pools were applauded off at half-time and again at full-time yesterday, No boos, no catcalls. If you were there you'll know that.

Admittedly if Pools go out at the first hurdle in the FA Cup again that will go down like a bowl of cold sick with the entire fan base.

I'm well aware of what happened yesterday. The 'remaining fans' that I referred to are those who have elected NOT to boycott matches as a result of the failed takeover process and/or simply Raj Singh's continued presence.

That may well be, but season after season of ‘getting by’ have made their mark.

this game and anybodys future at the club should be decided on the manner of the defeat if that did happen. it would not be anywhere close to the biggest cup shock if it did happen where many consist of a team not giving everything to one who uses its seasons luck up in one game. go out there like we did at the vic last saturday we,ll be dine if everything is equal, but play like we did against brackley we deserve to exit at the dirst time of asking.