The Poolie Bunker

A line up guaranteed to instil fear into the heart of any Pools, sorry Heed fan.

1-0 Topala , better

This is looking promising. We're just short of being the finished product in and around the box. The ref has been very good so far (which makes a change).

Johnson comes on and misses a sitter in front of goal

Come on lads...hang on, or even better score another!!!

Cartwright.... proper keeper.

Enjoyed that, both teams going for it, pools deserved the win. MoM for me was Matty Daly, best game I've seen him have for ages. Still not convinced with Walker, genuinely think Feths would be a better choice

Great save from Cartwright last minute. It’s just a Shame that there is not sufficient investment in the team . As usual great defensive display . But what would we do without France’s . Reminds of me of Cleary last season . And as regards the
New signings what’s going on ? It’s mid table at best . Rinse, spin and finish . Just no ambition from the chairman . Still the lads on the pitch give everything . We also hit the bar . Will the forwards eventually come good . Can’t fault the effort though to grind the win out . Well done Pools

Already 10 points behind Forest Green so forget promotion.

I reckon we've got the makings of something good here (and I know they're not banging them in but Reid and Johnson are quality players). We are hard to score against. When was that last a thing at Pools?

Also the team all reacted like we'd won a cup final when the final whistle went. I like that - it means they care about it as much as we do.

Yes can’t fault the effort

The defence and keeper must be happy every time they take the midfield . It’s like watching Italy . Maybe Grayson watches the Italian league . Now if we could just grind out the rest of the games and win 1/0 we might be on to something . Only kidding . You got to try and believe in something . Yes the team did react like they won the cup final . I do like the attitude . Come on Napoli . I mean Pools.

What a relief!
Listened to the game- it really was end to end but sounded like Pools more than deserved the victory. Referee must have had a decent game- as don't recall any flash points or yellow cards for that matter.

It will be interesting to see how good we can be once the strikers find their shooting boots, as we don't concede many.

Big shout out to the 862 Poolies in a crowd of 1651- an incredible effort mid week- (even if it is just up the road) given the recent run of form. Will certainly make the second half of the week at work more palatable!

Grayson and his players stopped the rot with a greater effort and consequently a much better performance this evening - well done! Hopefully they can build on this and make a realistic push for the playoffs, however they ain't going to achieve this by only scoring one goal per game, relying on the mercurial Cartwright to keep them ahead. Let's hope that Grayson can extract some additional funding from Raj that will enable him to complete his squad with the addition of decent combative/creative midfielder and a mobile striker to provide an alternative option up top.

Enjoyed the game how ever chance after chance went begging.
The crowd there is no way they had more than us we had at least 200 trying to get a burger lol.
Still no roof on the stand so very poor atmosphere.
So hey hoe we got the win with 21 sots to their 2 tells you how much more comftable it should have been.

Enjoyed watching that, there was organisation across the pitch, something we haven’t seen for several seasons.
Not forgetting several good saves by their keeper and several fortunate ones (the ball in the face comes to mind)

Have you noticed their 100 or so die hards sit right under the big stand roof so they sound louder? Can't fault them like - proper fans, there's just not enough of them. Poolies definitely outnumbered the Heed support by a good margin tonight.

Great to get the win. Topolloj excellent, Francis not far behind him though he was clean through on goal twice and should have put at least one of them away. Daly also good.

It's not like Pools had it all their own way though - the Heed have a few clever players up front and put our back 4 under a lot of pressure at times. Pools' midfield still isn't right. There's too big a gap between our attack and the defensive midfielders and the likes of Kenton Richardson were allowed to bring the ball out from the back 30-40 yards. Richardson always impresses me. I'd have him back at Pools any time.

Good round of applause for Fergie from our side of the ground when he was subbed and had to take the long walk round the pitch.

Improvement and welcome three points.

An improvement and welcome three points indeed, however two comments from the above are alarming to anyone who seriously believes that a playoff push will now ensue ie;

'21 shots to their 2' tells you how much more comfortable it should have been', and 'the midfield still isn't right'.

That well-worn phrase 'Work in Progress' comes to mind......

I wouldn't take the '21 to 2' literally. They had quite a few shots - mostly from long range and off target. We had a lot more good chances than them.

Think Grayson should be in the loan market for another attacker. Reid will get back in the groove sooner or later but other than him it's hard to see where the goals will come from. Johnson 0 goals from 11 appearances. Charman doesn't score enough. The new lad Oliver is good in the air and has good hold up play but he has no pace at all.

I think Smokin Joe is right with his description "work in progress" as I can't imagine SG thinks his recruiting is complete. I certainly don't see our squad as complete.

we have improved in defence from last season but they look to be a quick reverse gear unless they had a number of players out. know you can only play what you are playing against but cannot imagine having an easier game away from the vic this season. as for the gate i just wonder how much bigger the gate would have been if it was played on a saturday. have clubs asked for closer mid week fixtures or has the league forced them into it. carlisle next wednesday and guess there will be 500 to 1,000 less than ther would be on a saturday. its a lot of gate money lost especially for clubs like pools who rely on it. bet the ref will not have an easier game to control than that last night where even the commontators said it was a nice game. like the 3 points but would prefer to see more bite in a game.

we need to move a few out before we bring new bodies in. just how long can campbell hang around wasting a wage for starters. then johnson put on another master class in missed chances to put the game to bed in his cameo.

Sure enough moving the unwanted before you bring in the wanted is an important criteria but who expected either Campbell or Johnson to be in the flop category.

I just finished watching the highlights this morning after only seeing the last 40 minutes live. Agree with Snowy good evidence of organisation and back to how we were playing 4 or 5 games ago. Was also pleased with the number of efforts on goal . Grayson said the lads have been trying to improve their goal input . And to do that you got to go back to basics. Agree we are still a team with work in progress but if you keep knocking on the door enough you will get your rewards . More positive habits in the box will provide more positive results . That’s a fact . So well done Grayson for working on it. Crossing still needs to improve in the area and just need to be a tad more clinical and maybe a bit more physical . Let’s hope that in the next match the floodgates open and we see a few more goals. As long as I see improvement and am entertained I am happy. Congratulations to the back 5 again . Tremendous .

have not written johnson off just yet but campbell has done sod all to pick up a wage. obviously he is not busting a gut in training either for grayson to give him another chance. i,d swap him for any of gatesheads attack minded players however poor they looked the other night as they cannot be any worse than him and could be a goo move for both players.

So pleased with the tightening up of our defence this season after years of conceding goals for fun, we actually have the best goals conceded to games played ratio in the top 5 divisions, that's probably never happened in our history.

As a comparison we conceded 21 goals in our first 11 games in season 23/24, 19 in 22/23 and 10 last season, if we can start to find our shooting boots and bag more of the chances we are creating and continue to keep it tight at the back I'm hoping we can hang around those playoff places.

(Double post due to the slowness of the system)

With this defence, we can ignore the big scores as two goals would do…..you only get three points no matter how many you score.
Tongue firmly in cheek

better keep it there as it takes only a deflection like it did at aldershot to come home with no points if you are toothless. it could easlily have happened in this game also with a inch either way.