The Poolie Bunker

Tyrese Sinclair was absolutely unplayable for the first 30 minutes last night and tore Carlisle a new back passage. He's making a huge difference to Pools' attacking play. It's no coincidence Alex Reid has started scoring again.

We've struggled for goals all season. In games when Reid wasn't firing we basically had no attacking threat.

The only other player who looked like a natural goalscorer was Vadaine Oliver, and when he was putting chances away Reid was out injured. You couldn't make it up!

Now if we can keep Sinclair, Reid, Oliver and Caton fit for this final run of 12 games it should be cracking entertainment if nothing else. UTP!

Admittedly, we have suffered from injuries, but seeing them play last night does get you wondering again……I expected nothing last night, but was pleasantly taken aback.
What with their fans stood like dummies in shop windows at midnight ……apparently stunned to realise they weren’t going to get what they thought they were gonna get, which they’d obviously taken for granted.
A pleasant night all round.

Yes the first comment I made during the game was "where has this team been." Sinclair is making the same impact Cleary made last season. Might be an idea to sound out a permanent move to us.
Talking of Cleary. A Barnsley supporter who lives near me walks his dog past our house twice a day. Yesterday I was weed hunting in the front garden and he stopped to chat. I said How's my mate Cleary. He answered, he's a good footballer but a bit lazy. I said send him back to us then, remembering the game where he lost the ball in the opponents third and ran sixty yards to get it back.

I as others (I think) went to the game last night not expecting much, especially when I had seen the team Featherstone had selected.
Wow, intent, good defending, ball moving quickly and pace when attacking.
As others have said the left side was unplayable last night, the play between John and Sinclair was superb, please Landon sign these two if you can.
I'm still not a fan of Featherstone, I think he is too negative and sets a team up not to lose, rather than to win....but performances like that just show what the team are capable off when we play quickly and on the front foot, that must be the blue print for the remainder of the season, it will likely still not be enough as we have been too negative in too many games but at least it will be enjoyable.

Sinclair and John's link up play and pace on the left wing was a joy to watch.

The whole team looked like they'd had a weight lifted from their shoulders last night. Campbells reaction to Hunters comical 3 yards out open goal miss (he was pissing himself laughing) summed up how much they were all enjoying the game.

To be fair Reid had an awful game overall, he doesn't win headers, he doesn't hold the ball up, he doesn't use his strength or physical presence to put CBs under pressure. There was a fair bit of negative stuff directed at him from the stands consequently. What he does do very well is attack the goal when he's running onto the ball or at least facing the goal as he did for his goal.
We need him to be facing goal more often instead of with his back to goal.

Bet you're in the Millhouse and in earshot of the same noisy gobshite who thinks he's coaching the U-12s Awful game? Don't think so. Reid worked his nuts off and got his reward.

I'm not saying he didn't work hard, just that he struggles with his back to goal and on his own. Quite a few having a grumble about his performance first half actually last night.

The ‘Mouth of the Millhouse’ bet he shouts at Subuteo players, to ‘encourage’ them.
An embarrassment, because I don’t recall any player trying harde because of a verbal tongue lashing.

I would agree with this to be fair, there’s plenty of games where you wouldn’t even notice Reid was playing. Part of that is that he’s completely ineffective most of the time in build up, the other is that he’s completely ineffective usually gets very little service. This makes him look even worse because as you say he’s best getting onto the end of chances. Maybe having someone direct and with a bit of quality with Sinclair will help with that.

I’ve also seen that he’s never played as a lone striker before (and based on his performances fo us that makes a lot of sense). Maybe he’s another who’s been a victim of our mismanagement rather than being a bad player per se.

Agree 100% - last night was surely what Landon meant when he said let's have a go at the play offs and have 'fun' in doing so. Unlike most of the clubs above us in the table there is absolutely no pressure on Pools to secure a playoff place this season. Players and fans alike can therefore approach the remaining fixtures with virtually gay abandon with everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Ye I think it's a free hit.
Knowing that if we do miss out then the Foundations to stop struggling are on the way.

UTP.

And we can at least build momentum and a feel good factor going into the close season, would raise hope and sell more STs.

Carlisle looked like a team resigned to the playoffs and the likelihood of another season in the leagues bottleneck back to the League…with one safe route and one gamble.

They certainly didn't look very good although even with 10 men they created problems with Kelly looking very dangerous. I put it down to us making them look bad rather than them having an off day. Mark Hughes said we had a plan and set out to play a certain way and we did it well.
The proof of the pudding will be in the games to come, can we dominate and make the Sutton's and Eastleigh s etc look bad.
Will Sinclair or Caron inspire a play off run in the way that the loan signing of Armstrong did for us?

it also summed up the game with hunter being so advanced that he missed the goal.

Reid’s performances in front of goal where and are negatively impacted by Featherstones stupid system of playing a loan striker with nobody around him .How can you score goals with your back to goal. Even Mani struggled playing that way. We won the Carlisle match because we started on the front foot and finished on the front foot. We were first to second balls , played ata a fast pace with slick passing. We also used the wings more particularly on the left where Sinclair tore their right back to pieces . We also had numbers in the box . I said after the Rochdale game we should use that performance as an imprint . Guess what Feathrrs went back to safe boring football again. The difference is now he can’t ask his team to play cautiously because one more defeat and that’s it. So now the boring guy has come out of his shell because he has no choice in the matter . Simply every game we just have to go for it

Double post

just will our problems start when we play those shithouse tactics the traditional non league southern teams use against us. have we a plan like others have to counteract them instead of being drawn into an arm wrestle as always. even before the carlisle game win or lose we always look better against a team who attempt to play whats called football and not one that looks to have lost there way and should be playing wests or rovers.

After the Rochdale win, didnt Featherstone try to play the same style against Woking but it went tits up which made him waryof trying it again? Anyone able to explain what went wrong and why it is working now? Is it simply the arrival of Sinclair? I would love to hear some opinions.

Probaly. Luke Charman not exactly known for his goals and Johnson on the bench!

(I misread your question and first of all gave an answer about the 3-0 home loss to Aldershot - see below )

sometimes one good player can galvanise a team and a change on the bench with liddle might have helped. you never stop learning anything and guess the best manager in the history of the game was still learning on there last ever game in charge.

he might have been quiet but he was existant unlike some of the others were. that was not the first game we played like that for some reason and it could easily happen again before the seasons done. as long as its only one and the rest were like the last two games i can take it.

[quote="Ozzy Saltburn"]After the Rochdale win, didnt Featherstone try to play the same style against Woking but it went tits up which made him waryof trying it again? Anyone able to explain what went wrong and why it is working now? Is it simply the arrival of Sinclair? I would love to hear some opinions.[/quote.

The Arrival of players and coaches that Fevs has chosen, an innovation directed by Landon Smith. Sinclair, Okike, Holohan, Caton,and Lidds.
Landon Smith may not be an expert at running a football club but he comes across as someone who would be of the opinion that the manager has overall responsibility for playing affairs and therefore should be given the opportunity to recruit the team to suit the tactics and style he wants to achieve. The manager stands or falls on his performance and the performance he gets from his playing and coaching staff so give him the autonomy to get on with it and if he fails he goes.
Other people poking their noses in should be at the invitation of the manager. Someone other than the manager bringing players in over the manager's head, I don't agree with. No way.

we do not know if these new arrivals apart from holohan was the choice of the manager or someone else at the club. it seems if the signings are good they are the managers choice the bad ones someone elses. its something thats far from being unique with pools.

Wasn't the kid from Hull recommended to Fevs by a trusted friend of his who works at Hull City.

To be fair to all party’s involved, it’s a risk you take when signing any player as we’ve found out once again with certain players.
Happens at all clubs, bit like starting any job where some people are happy but others aren’t , it’s called life.

Yep, on paper we've got some very good players for this level but they don't seem to be doing as well as expected for probably a multitude of reasons, personal, personalities, style of play, attitude, etc etc
Interestingly our better players Miley, McNally, John, Kuogun, Sinclair, Benn (more recently) for example probably have their better years in front of them whereas the question is have we took many who are just here to pick up a wage.

As you say, Pools have years of experience now of NL teams tht come to the Vic not to lose. The height of their ambition is to nick an away goal and hang onto it with as much shithousery as the ref will let them get away with.

It's never a good watch.

The only remedy is for Pools to score an early goal themselves. In my book this is the first time this season we've got the players to hurt these 10 men-behind-the-ball game killers.

Simon Grayson gave up on playing 2 up front after 4 games - dropped Danny Johnson to the bench and left him there. There's an argument that Johnson has been hard done by, but not scoring in 3 starts against the mighty Gainsborough Trinity and Anstey Nomads said it all. He hasn't found the net in 17 appearances as a sub either.

My answer to 'play 2 up front' has always been - 'which feckin two?' No longer

Surely Mr Pearson was involved?

Weren't he and Sinclair scouted by Mr Pearson?

but which 2 out of the 3 we have got to do it. some players just cannot combine with others and vice versa. we have only seen minutes of caton and not sure what type of striker he really is. we need a hold up one plus one to play off them. reid is learning that role but reading between the lines its something he is forced to do rather than his choice. we have had a week on the training ground berween the carlisle and sutton games and hope we have found the pair that will suit us the best and not rotate all three as loan strikers. thats forgetting johnson who could also be brought back into the equasion if he can play better with either caton or oliver.

What formation did we play v Carlisle? I couldn’t make the match so had to settle for radio Tees but it sounded like a 433 so Reid was on his own upfront with Sinclair and Daly wide. Was the difference that the wide lads were closer to Reid?
Wish we were playing today after such a good performance.

The actual formation was a 4-3-2-1 but the entire team was on the front foot from the off. Sinclair is so quick that every time he went on a run he went beyond Reid - something the likes of Charman could never do.

The only game that was similar was the away win at Rochdale, when Feaths went for a high press so Dale couldn't play out from the back the way they like to do. That was another one where Pools looked fired up from the start and took the game by the scruff of the neck.

Funny how Folarin is also starting to look like a real threat playing out wide. Amazing what a bit of confidence will do.

plus his time away might have helped. confidence and being fired up from the off will beat any talent who do not possess those characteristics in a game.