The Poolie Bunker

Starting 11 for today's friendly:

1 Merrick
12 Ecclestone
6 McNally
27 Gibson
3 John
17 Nolan
4 Hunter (C)
8 Miley
7 Ilunga
9 Hugill
10 Harris

Wonder if Jack Hunter will be the club captain for the new season?

0-1 Grimsby

0-3 now. They're making it look easy but it's just a leg stretching exercise.

I see Andy Cook scored one. A gem of a player at this level.

Most definitely a wake up call. If there was any complacency, the step up in the quality of the opposition has certainly erased it.

Friendly or not, no team likes to be stuffed on their home patch.

Agreed

Luke Charman limping off.

When signing all the goal scorers should have a blend of how they like to receive the ball, Sounds like there was a lot of aimless running done. Need to sort this out and play a lot better next week and at the start of the season. Lets be honest Grimsby are not going to be a top 7 in the league two this season. Must try harder.

These are the manager's players so it's up to him to whip them into a winning outfit. There can be no excuses!

Grimsby made the League 2 play-off semi-finals last season. They're a full division better than us with a settled squad.

It's always a mistake to read too much into pre-season friendly results.

Let's see what Clark has to say post match . It could be that he was trying different combinations/tactics. The players have a chance to make amends next week against similar opposition. If we get pummelled again, we might need to review our optimism !

In the post match he said Charman might have broken his knee! If it turns out he has broken it, isn't that a season ending injury? Clark talked a lot about the positives and how he was a bit disappointed about the goals we let in but was confident these lapses could be ironed out in on the trainig ground. Anyone who was at the Vic, how did our new keeper get on? could he have saved any of the three goals?

He could/ should have saved the 2nd one. Came out of his area well and caught a couple of high balls. Not scared to come out to clear the dangerous forward passes. Looks ok to me.

Thanks for the reply. Much appreciated.

FfS

Friendly defeats don't mean jackshit.

UTP.

Clarks post match interview,
https://youtu.be/bCzzXVYlkik?si=x9GWtiYM4BSLwrz7

neither do victories. too many fans always make too much of both. any obvious problems are better to be seen now than in two weeks time.

I thought yesterday was sobering. A 3-0 defeat at home & a poor performance to go with it.

A warning - I don’t think we’re quite where we think we are…..

Hunter. By god. Rubbish.

You mean to say after beating the mighty Seaton Carew and Redcar we are not promotion favourites

What's going on? From nailed on promotion to no-hopers in the space of a 90 minute pre-season friendly?
Smithy out, Maxwell out, Beech out, Clarke out, the club is a shambles.

think there has been too much optimism which make a change. apart from the odd fan its been the opposite for a few seasons now. got to remember no matter who owns the club we still have a manager who was not a universal popular choice. think us realists will wait until at least early september before getting giddy about our prospects. one thing at our level will be other clubs will have newish squads also that will take time in bedding in like most seasons.

I’m not concerned, we have a new Manager, new Coaching staff, 7 of the starting 11 are completely new to the club, plus one more who only just rejoined on Friday after no pre-season, we have a keeper who only just met his team mates yesterday and we’re playing a brand new style of football in a new formation.

Grimsby only missed out on the Playoff final of the league above by an extra-time goal after finishing 3-3 against Salford over 2 legs, they have a settled team in a settled style, and will be looking to build on last year’s performance.

Nobody realistically thinks we’re going to walk the league, the expectation is progress, which is becoming a strong Playoff team and then anything else is a bonus.

I completely agree that the lack of a Lee Clark type player in midfield is our weak spot, but it’s very nice to have only that role left to fill, 2 weeks before the start of the season, and with only one loan spot being used, especially considering the size of the task that was required after last season, with 5 first team players under contract and no manager.

Given the recruitment I'd be very disappointed to finish 8th.
But very happy to finish 7th.
Anything higher would be a bonus.

UTP.

Anyone at the game prepared to say who they thought had a good game for us? Not about knee jerk criticism which is why I want to know about those who played well.

We started the game well and had our chances but Grimsby did well to cut through our defence a few times when we were caught unawares. The defence will need to sharpen up, and the new keeper will be disappointed with the second goal which went in at his near post. I’m sure that will all be worked on in the coming weeks.

Popov looked lively when he came on, works hard and puts himself about. Likewise for Charman until he went in hard for a 50/50 and had to go off, hopefully it’s not serious. Eccleston started the game well but faded out of it. I’ve been impressed by what I’ve saw of Campbell Darcy so far, I’m not surprised he has been given a contract.

Overall a good workout, still lots of things to work on.

Many thanks Mr Mars. The impression picked up from what I have read is that Grimsby were just more incisive and finished their chances.

I'm not going to judge anything on pre season friendlies. As long as they serve the purpose for which they are intended then that is what is important.
As usual I will wait until we have played at least ten league games before trying to assess our prospects. Of course, as usual, injuries and suspensions will play a big part in either holding us back or moving us forward. Hope no long term injuries come to hurt us.
Good luck to all involved.

Got a feeling this might be a breakthrough season for Campbell Darcy - he's got all the attributes a young defender needs. It would be good to have one of our own featuring regularly in the first team squad again.

I'd love to see him break into the team. I remember when Louis Stephenson got into the side and I was totally impressed, then Darcy got his chance and looked even better. I love to see the young lads getting a chance.
Without wanting to sound like an old fart, it used to happen a lot more often...I'm sure there's plenty on here will remember the 80/81 intermediate side and it produced quite a few players who ended up in the first team, the Linighans, Barry Stimpson, Kenny Lowe, Davey Howard... It used to happen. Sorry, it's late at night and I've had a drink...

unless we get a massive injury list and we never have a full squad to pick from finishing outside the play offs is a sacking job for a manager who has been backed like he has been. knowing pools if we do go up it will have to be the hard way by finishing 6th or 7th and playing our 2 games away before the final.

Speaking of Louis Stephenson, he's had some really bad luck over at Spennymoor. In his own words:
"To say I’m heartbroken would be an understatement. A fully torn ACL, a tear in my MCL, a vertical tear in my meniscus and a bone fracture and bruising. Just like that the thing you love is taken away from you. This setback is just a bump on my journey and I will be back"

Hope he has the best of luck getting over all that.

I’ll agree with you on that one…but I think you’re overdramatising a friendly result against a settled team who made the playoffs.

My reporter said apart from Hunter it was an outstanding performance.
And we Gunna be right up there this season.

Also mentioned how good the turf was like a bowling green.

UTP

And I'll agree with you on that one too, perhaps was an overreaction there, albeit I do think we looked soft in centre midfield and the 'goals against' column for pre-season looks quite high! Getting a 3-0 home hammering against a League 2 team isn't exactly ideal confidence building preparation.

Still - Lee Clark spoke of instilling a winning mentality from the outset. His style in the media so far has been much more positive than how Challinor was for example, who would have been quite critical/demanding from the outset of these friendlies.

I think the transfer business has been good and in Harris/Nolan/Popov/Illunga in particular we've gone & signed proven players at NL level. It's still 1 or 2 quality additions short of very good. A top quality centre midfielder. I reckon we'll end up in the loan market for one of these within the opening 2 to 3 months.

Sheron not up to it?

like hunter as regular starters but not too bad as subs or cover for injured players as long as one or the other is on the pitch and not both together.

My personal opinion is Hunter/Sheron are good for back up given both can also fill in within the defence.

But I think we've stacked our forward line out; strengthened what was an already decent defence - and neglected bringing in a star central midfielder.

Owen Hampson might be that person, we will wait & see.

most teams in our league have a decent midfield. think we have but could get caught out by lack of numbers of forward thinking players. there is still plenty of time even after the season starts to fill the gap if there is one. the season is not over even if we did make a slow start after the first 10 games.

Between them, Clark, Beech and the Bromby guys have plenty of contacts further up the football pyramid. Hope they're working on brilliant midfield options for a season long loan.

To put that result into perspective, Grimsby just beat Lincoln City 5-1 tonight.

have not seen any of the pre season games. just wonder if its really that obvious we are short in that position or is it fans looking for an improvement on what we have.

All about opinions isn't it?
We've got enough options for the wide midfield positions and options for a holding midfielder in Hunter and Sheron. I'm sure we'll see more from Miley in a freer role under Clark given that he was an attacking midfielder for Newcastle.
I rarely go to friendly games and never get bothered by those results or performances, it's all preparation and nothing more than that before the important games begin.
I'm optimistic every season but more more so this time given the quality of players we've brought in, surely in the likes of Nolan and Harris there must have been serious competition to sign them. The bookies have us as 2nd favourites for the title and they're generally a decent forecaster.
Let's see where we are after a handful of games and as someone has mentioned previously there's plenty of time to bring in reinforcements if they're needed.

as kids we,d be saying pools would beat the imps 2-1 then. some of us have not grown up either.