The Poolie Bunker

They were on for one minute, apparently it was a common thing for National league clubs to do last season against Premier U21 sides.

Does that now count as Pools heaviest defeat? Previous record was 10-1

the saturday morning games were played by the youth team which was under 18,s.who were on a two year apprentieship.. do not know if that still exists with this under 21 thing. pools used to play villa, wolves, birmingham, wba, leicester at one time in the mid to late 1990,s and i ran the line when they played at northampton. think theu held there own in that league and certainly were not hammered like yesterday.

true, but at this time of the season it would have helped players who did not get a kick on saturday or were used as subs to get a full first half of football and the kids get there chance in the second. that with the warm up is surely better than training.

My thoughts too, we've got 20 odd first teams and only 15 can feature in league games. Surely playing these games would be more beneficial than just training. Reserve goalkeeper could have played surely?

I might be wrong but I'm sure I read somewhere that all the games against Champ/Prem clubs were at home. If that is the case then travelling to Everton won't take place.

Fisher is the reserve keeper!!

So just to clear some things up on the competition.

There are 4 groups of 8 teams - 4 National League and 4 Premiership or Championship Under 21s or PL2 teams as they are called, so they can include returning first team squad players on occasions, not yesterday though. There are 31 teams in PL2 and they played 20 games each last season in that competition.

They added these PL2 teams to the EFL Trophy that we once were so close to Wembley with. As they had so few games they invented this competition that we have dodged the previous 2 seasons under Raj as basically we didn't have a big enough squad.

As you can see from yesterday there is a rule that each team must have at least 5 players who played in the last first team squad at the start of the game. Last year some teams made a mockery of this by taking the first teamers off after a minute or so. We copied that route yesterday with only Fisher remaining on the pitch. As for giving lesser members of the first team a game, only McKeown has not played any minutes so far.

It is a bit of a joke that these substitutions are allowed and the gap not been plugged but it seems to be an event that the National LEague were forced into by Premier teams to obtain some cash rewards. all 4 games are at the ground of the National LEague team and the top 2 in each group reach the quarter finals. The winners so far hae been Leeds Under 21 and Boreham Wood last season.

Clearly we have given the youngsters a game and been found out by the class difference. As for them not being in a league, this season we have entered the National League Under 19 Alliance which will give them games at a more equal footing. Obviously this hasn't started yet.

Football Academy - North
AFC Fylde
Altrincham
Boston United
Chester
FC Halifax Town
Gateshead
Harrogate Town
Hartlepool United
Hednesford Town
Solihull Moors
South Shields
York City

I reckon so. It's a competition that Pools entered with rules that stipulate that members of the first-team squad have to be involved.

even thats wrong. know it saves pools some money but it could be the one and only chance some of those lads have to play at the riverside or a premier league ground. ran the line at villa park once and that made those weeks of ploughing through mud and a cold dressing room feel worthwhile.

[quote="PTID"]My thoughts too, we've got 20 odd first teams and only 15 can feature in league games. /quote]

16 - all 5 permitted substitutions were used on Saturday. Only McKeown didn't feature at all on the pitch in either game. Bondo and Sheron only got 20 minutes on the pitch on Saturday so there's an argument that they could have benefitted from another game.

Pools have 4 National League games in 15 days between 28th August and 11th September, so the chances of Lee Clark wanting any members of his core squad to feature for more than a minute against Everton's PL2 team on 8th August are about zero

What have we got 24 first team squad members so that's 9 didn't get a kick on Saturday.
I would've thought a gentle run out against U21s would've given them a bit more than just training, can't understand why we entered the thing if all we're going to do is expose our kids to embarrassing maulings.
Also it's taking the piss out of the fans charging them to go and watch it.

Another instance of the substitutions changing the game. When will we learn?

Well said.

Have a go at saying who they are then.

16 played some part for Pools against Barrow. 3 played for Hebburn and Spenny in the NLN. Charman and Hampson are injured. Smith doesn't count - 3rd goalie/coach.

All the rest apart from McKeown and two of the 1st year professionals - Gilbraith and Conyard - turned out against the Boro. Those two are nowhere near the Pools first 11 at the minute so there's no reason - other than fitness? - why they shouldn't have played against the Boro.

So you think sending kids to be totally outclassed is a good idea?
It's fair to charge our fans to watch such a debacle? If we're not fielding a competitive side then let the fans in for nothing FFS.
Would it have killed us not to give Bondo a run out for example?
I'd far rather we hadn't entered if it means the kids are going to get battered game after game because we're not taking a competition we opted to play in seriously.

That's you all over - whenever you haven't got an answer to a simple question you change the subject

I've already mentioned on this same thread that Bondo and Sheron might as well have played against the Boro, as they only had 20 minutes against Barrow.

As I've also said, being wise after the event it maybe wasn't a great idea of Pools to re-enter this Micky Mouse competition which is all for the benefit of PL and Championship clubs. There's a reason Carlisle and FGR dropped out after their experiences last year.

Live and learn - as I'm sure Landon Smith will.

I didn't realise it was a compulsory test mate!
No I can't name the entire squad. Happy??

Just "the 9 that didn't get a kick on Saturday" would have done. Maybe the squad hasn't got quite the strength in depth that's sometimes talked about - and there's always a few injuries to contend with.

Didn't look good on the BBC football site...

Landon Smith posted on X, not if it’s a fake account though.
https://x.com/landonsmithtx/status/2087 ... FmWNDSFt3g

That's you all over - whenever you haven't got an answer to a simple question you change the subject’
‘Exactly, you have noticed as well replies to my posts the same way.

Only I did answer the question didn't I?
It was quite obvious that I couldn't name the squad when my post estimated the size of it and I'm pretty sure Mr Hogan knew when he asked that I couldn't name them.
The points I made are quite valid in a thread about the NL Cup aren't they?
The bottom line is that Pools are taking the piss out of the competition, but more importantly the paying customers, and they're not doing our youngsters any good whatsoever with the squad they put out.

a couple of points here. those two players might have made it known they did not want to play in the game unless it was totally necessary. it wasn,t, but wonder if that result is repeated a couple more times we could withdraw from the competition and pay any fine levied on us.

I think it was a poor management decision to sub four experienced players after just one minute. All four should have had at least 20 minutes game time and subbed one at a time. Our young players must be dreading the next game.

to think Boro are probably one of the poorer teams from the PL teams in the competition what will other teams do to us. It should of been any first team squad members who did not feature against Barrow. What a blow to Nathan Fisher's confidence on his debut.

I doubt professional footballers have an opt out over which games they play in.

The first minute substitutions and the fact that Academy manager Alex Cross was in the dug-out not Lee Clark says it all. The club sees the competition as a development opportunity for the newly recruited U-21 side, pure and simple.

I imagine they factored in the possibility of some heavy defeats but the 0-10 (now officially in the record books as Pools' worst ever result) must have come as a shock.

The team for the next game NL Cup against Everton will be interesting. Does the need to do something about reputational damage come before our promotion campaign? As said, Pools have SEVEN league games in September.

In the Boro lowlights of the game Fisher pulls off a couple of decent saves in the first half but his body language is terrible in the second half. He just looks sorry for himself and is beaten far too easily. Shades of Nick Hayes in the Morecambe game.

I'm sure Lee Clark will have had a word.

Should never have entered the competition!

was delighted when we ignored it to be honest and ots nothing to do with the result on tuesday.

Well I got the bite I expected, you managed to reply without blaming Labour.

Same here, we ignored it last season and should have done the same this season.

National League, FA Trophy, FA Cup should be the ones we should be concentrating on.

The youngsters can have their own matches to play in a league that has similar standards.
If they were good enough they would be playing for the U21 sides for the big teams in the north east.

A terrible decision by Pools!

A bit like going into a gunfight with a knife.

made even worse by the fact we have just started our under 21 team and the opponents have been doing it for a few seasons now. lets be real we are never going to compete against premier league and championship clubs in the recruitment of kids. might get the odd one every few years but thats it. unless you are a lifelong poolie you,d never turn down a top side to play for pools. be interesting to find out whose idea it was to join this farce. seeing it looks like being a big failure that information will be a secret.

I don't feel so bad now....