The Poolie Bunker

I know it's only 5 games, but there's absolutely no evidence on tonight's showing that Pools have the makings of a play-off side.

It's the third game running where we have been out-muscled and outplayed all over the pitch by bog standard National League sides.

Yes, we had a few shots on target and with the rub of the green might have scored one, but without Merrick in goal, how many would we have let in? 3? 4?

Recruitment has been poor overall, and nobody can pretend that the coaching looks up to snuff. Some of the players are already starting to look lost. Can anybody see how we snap out of this?

It says it all that Tait Trusty, a kid who we had on loan last season, looked head and shoulders better than any of our midfielders. And obviously, we signed the wrong Hugill

Anything less than a win on Saturday and it's got to be game over for the current set up.

Bloody shame that Dave Challinor was only in the commentary box tonight!

Yeah. Landon puts his hand in his pocket, gets in a couple of midfielders, and if Clark doesn’t turn it around in the next 5/6 games admits he made a mistake and gets rid of him.

The goalkeeper looks like the best we’ve had in years, Kougan and McNally are a solid pair of CBs, and we’ve got 2 match winners in Nolan and Harris. But that means nothing if you’ve got 3 Sunday league level midfielders.

If we had even 1 forward thinking midfielder things would look a whole lot better.

Good point about having Merrick in goal because on last nights showing we could have been 3-0 down at half time which shows his excellence as a keeper.
The midfield is a defensive midfield, so defensive in fact that once it has to go on the offensive it’s lost…..it’s a stop em at all costs defence, but that’s the sum total of its capability and a poor reflection on the the summer recruitment if the previous seasons glaring failure failing…our biggest in the squad had been found wanting two seasons earlier than this…and is rolled out again this season with apparently the same result.
We are going nowhere with our midfield as it is.

Last two games we’ve been utter shite.

Hearing the Carlisle are due to sign Mani D. We are nowhere near that level.

Landon - put your playing cards back in their packs and sort this shite out. We are nowhere further forward than we were last season. That last night was complete and utter shite. Do better. The lot of you.

The problem we have now is that there is no money to buy anymore permanent replacements so we need to invest in quality loaners and focus on the main problem which is the midfield. We need at least 2 attacking midfielders pronto imo before we slide anymore down the table . You can’t coach defensive midfielders to attack so Clarke needs to act now . Think it’s a bit early to be blaming the owner at the moment together with Bromby . Agree with all the comments on here based on 5 matches that the goalkeeper is masking some of the problems we have. Defence are more or less ok and the attackers are not getting quality supplies . Endeavour and high pressing are not enough in themselves . I’m interested in Clarkes post match and hope that he doesn’t dress up this performance because most of us on here saw it coming

well we came second last night in endeavour and being pressed. somebody mentioned we have signed the wrong hugill. well at least there one can last longer on the pitch and does look as if he has a goal in him.

As all new managers seem to do lately, in pre-season Lee Clark talked about how fit his Pools team were going to be and us having a high press.

5 games in, it's fair to say Pools are no fitter than the other teams they've faced in the NL and our 'pressing game' is piss poor.

Watching Jordan Hugill charge around like a mad bull for the first 10 minutes last night to compensate for Popov being absent only told me that he'd be hooked (knackered) at half time.

Harris doesn't press, neither does Nolan. It's not part of their game and more importantly it's NOT why we signed them. What's worse, none of our central midfielders can press - they're all too slow. Why was this not recognised in pre-season?

Nolan didn’t look fit to me last night, chose the easy option every time and just not that quick and nippy in his work given what we’ve signed him for. Doesn’t help when his role is shifted around, as he never got involved when moved into the 10.

I don’t think Clark knows his best team or formation. I think we will graft a win out vs Woking but I’m really unimpressed with these opening 5 games. On paper the team looked very good last night but what they served up look so bad on the eye. There’s more quality there in this team than last year but it’s worse than under Featherstone without a doubt. Looks like 11 randoms thrown together. Very front to back stuff where the only real star man was Merrick who is top class. I was genuinely astounded last night how we - like against Eastleigh - managed to look very busy but create the square root of fuck all throughout the evening.

I thought the new signings were overhyped at the time and Clark hammering on about identity was just another glib catch phrase. Keeper is excellent but as for the rest, signed two forwards who had been part of a relegated Morecambe team. To be fair Nolan looked to be a good signing. Harris another that looked good on paper but really only had one good season at Halifax and before that was only heading in one direction. Winger from level below and others relatively unknown. Hugill finished and looking for last pay day.
The team was crying out for a midfield general. Busy ball winner winner with good distribution and pulling the strings. All the successful teams in this league have one. It's not rocket science. Manager has been out of the game too long and is no Kevin Keegan. Beech another who has failed everywhere he has been. I think the chairman has been well and truly stitched up by that Bromby outfit.

Miley is technically very good but like marmite. I thought he played well last night whereas my pal thought he was poor. The thing is - none of them contribute goals or assists whereas look at all the best teams in the division… they have a midfield that do contribute.

Season we went up we had Oates / Armstrong and then Holohan all getting goals in. This is a far cry from the quality in that team. I’d remove Clark now and get Maynard in. Ruthless but you’re not going to have a better chance to get a proven winner in. Maynard is that man. Go and get him.

It could be worse if Aldershot dident miss that penalty.
Maybe the football gods have punished us for that.
Ah well top of the least goals scored table.

Only Football.

Stay healthy

Good call for Maynard.

need to go back to the day when we played 2 games and were unbeaten. not exactly convincing then but it was early days. no sign of any improvement in any player with some going backwards quicker than the italian army in ww2. whats annoyed fans the most is we expected a big improvement and not treading water from 12 months back.

100%. I've got nothing against Lee Clark personally - he comes over as a genuinely likeable fella - but nice guys win nowt. The team looked deflated last night after it went behind to a comically inept goal. No real fight, just that 'here we go again' feeling that we're all too familiar with.

I expected a Challinor rumour by now. Did anybody listen to Tees and did he give any clues.
Ah well.

Like most, I had misgivings about the Clark appointment but was willing to give the guy a chance.

Unfortunately it’s looking increasingly apparent that it’s not working.
I hope he comes good, I really do.

IMO I think he’ll get till Christmas to turn it around. I honestly can’t see a change anytime soon but if it continues the way it’s started another season of failure incoming

Id argue we look more unfit then most teams I’ve seen at this level aswell, the amount of injuries and players walking around after 15 minutes we have already already is absolutely embarrassing. The press is all over the place, so easy to play out of and it seems to be causing injuries to a lot of our lads.

The players can’t ‘model’ their fitness re Clark, he is a few clem overweight, lead by example.

Clark reminds me of Steve Bruce and look at his record with North East teams

But you were all raving about the recruitment before the season kicked off!!! Now its shit recruitment, yes we`ve lost the last 3 games....BVut make yer fecking minds up!!!

Most people have an issue with the manager, not most the squad. Apart from a few saying every player we have is shite most the complaints about the squad are that we need a midfielder or 2. Which 95% of fans have been saying since summer 2025.

If we aren’t going to get any more players in the sensible thing to do is to change formation?

I think Mike Basset was the last manager I saw play 442, so something more progressive maybe like 352. Move Hunter back into a back three with McNally and Kougan, a midfield of Ecclestone/Benn, Nolan, Sheron, Mckeown and Ilunga then a front two of Harris and Hugill.

Surely that would give us more presence in the middle and with four creative players in there the chances would come?

Aye, people were raving and rightly so, the problem is the spending never went far enough when it came to midfielders..

I’m disappointed in that there has been no post match interview from Clarke after the Halifax game . Needs to comment on the good and the bad and maybe address the midfield . I personally don’t think we should be looking to sack the guy after 5 games . Far too early. Needs time to sort the problem . Maybe go 3-5-2 as some suggest to plug the hole for now

it was never going to work under hartley or sarll so like them surely he cannot be left in charge till the season is more or less over. correct that its too early now but not after 10 games if things do not look likely to change. surely one day we will drop lucky again with a manager who really knows his job and gets lucky in the transfer market.

4-4-2 was the formation that everyone was clamouring for last season, because we weren't scoring enough goals. Clark has set his stall out to play that way and we're still not scoring! He tried a 352 at Halifax, with Benn and Ilunga as the wing backs.

Looks like the coaching is a bigger issue than the formation...

This was posted a few minutes sho on Pools YouTube channel, better late than never I suppose,
https://youtu.be/j_QtpSeLNzc?si=vordDgKWh6U0gajl

BBC Radio Tees and The Red Radio both had post-match interviews up yesterday - as they always do - with Clark and Nathan Sheron. They're not hard to find online.

My comment refers to why the club put the post match interview up nearly 2 days after the game finished, I thought Pools had appointed a new media person ?
You would think the club would be the first one to post the interview ?

Fitness is also a major factor when you play with a high press, lots of running, chasing and harrying to do. I also think some of our players are getting out muscled. We do have a few stronger lads but there are some big teams in this league and the likes of Miley are easily pushed off the ball…

do not think fitness is a problem as nobody looks as if they are blowing out of their arses later in games and we do seem to finish strongly. strength is another thing though where we are getting out muscled with the opposition coming away with the ball in physical challenges. is it a strength issue though or others wanting it more.

A desire to want to Win team spirit, is the most important need of any team….we’ve seen too many going through the motions players in recent years.