The Poolie Bunker

The most concerning thing for me is the total lack of 100%effort from the team apart from Harris.
We may never find out why.

But I suggest just watch tonight at the Vic or on TV and judge the effort levels.

The effort levels will go one of two ways. 1. The players will want to impress Landon so will give 100% (not saying they will win) OR 2. They will try even less in order to show up the way the club is being run both on and off the pitch in front of the owner. Of course not all the players behave this way, a small number always try their best but are let down by the go through the motions lot. Whatever happens, it will not be boring. I know Pools will lose tonight but I am kind of looking forward to it, just to see what happens in the aftermath.

Radio Tees just confirmed that Smithy is Deffo here for tonight and Saturday.

Looking at tonight's team is going to give me another 2 hours of suffering in the town end.

Probably the best half we’ve played all season (which isn’t saying much). Harris is a beast and with a half decent midfield would score 25 goals. That keeper already looks more comfortable than Fisher. Hugill is a donkey.

Solid first half, thought Harris and Hughill together is working well and they look up for it

Come on you Reds! Pools looked decent to be fair and up till now Harrogate are as poor a side as I've seen at the Vic this season. Can it last?

McNally is the best player on the pitch by a distance - hasn't put a foot wrong.

McNally back to his best hopefully after a shaky start to the season (not helped by revolving door back line and rubbish keeper).

no complaints here. just finish them off.

Long season for you lot

Disappointing second half where we created absolutely nothing of substance after a reasonably pleasing first half. Their goal was unlucky with the deflection but still you can’t expect to win when you don’t create chances.

McNally put his best performance in all season which is a good sign. I feel sorry for Harris as when he gets the ball he’s clearly good enough to be one of the best strikers in the league. Keeper had a nervy moment but looked more in control than Fisher.

On the other hand, Sheron is painful to watch in possession and needs replacing. Bondo is nowhere near good enough and whoever’s idea it was to play him as a #10 should be sacked (and gave the ball away for their goal). Charman looked flashy at times but every cross sailed over everyone’s head unfortunately, not good enough. Hugill is an absolute donkey and offers nothing other than fouling the opposition. Shame that Thornton had to go off as we looked better with him on. Promising sign for the future.

We need to start scoring more goals and picking up points, but I can’t see it with this midfield and wide players, as we just don’t create enough chances. We need Nolan to show why he was so highly regarded, and to get some midfielders in desperately. With Kougan in CB and Merrick in goal we should be able to grind out some 0-0s but that’s not going to be enough.

edit

Well. What now.

It was names out of a hat stuff for the starting 11. This illustriously appointed ‘football department’ have made a monumental mess now haven’t they. I hope Landon is giving them a firm rocket up the arse because as I’ve said on other threads, they’ve been paid to build this. Philosophy. Tactics. Style of play. Employment of staff. Player recruitment. None of it looks good right now. REMINDER…… LEE CLARK! This lot couldn’t run a bath, never mind a football team.

A promising few passages of play in the 1st half - a terrible second half were subs made naff all different… and another defeat. There’s some very bad footballers in this team. That or they are so bereft of confidence, uncoached, tactically misguided, unfit that they are just so out of form.

Dismal football match. Dismal crowd. Dismal atmosphere.

Dismal football club. Word of the night - dismal.

When will this footballing hell end.

First half decent but poor finishing.

2nd half shite.

New manager got a tough job.


Can Smithy talk let us know if he's still interested.

We have scored eight goals so far this season and only only Gatesehead have scored less with six. How many saves did the Harrogate keeper have to make this evening? We signed a lot of firepower but no one to provide the ammunition. Trying to think of something to be postive about but its a struggle.

I’m afraid of what the future holds for our football club.
We need 2 creative players in the middle desperately.Along with L back and Rback
We created absolutely nothing in the 2nd half I can’t see us improving under Liddle and Co
Over to you Landon

Did Pools get booed off again?

The best I can say was that was a tad better but nowhere good enough. One of those teams looks like going down and the league table suggests the other one could be going up.
Strange strange strange league.

Why were we so lacking in the 2nd half? Did Harrogate make tactical tweaks to negate what we were doing in the first half or did the Pools players just get tired?

It’s actually laughable that Bromby and co have managed to spend more, and inadvertently make us worse! Only at Pools, ffs man!

That substitution of thornton for bondo. Absolutely criminal

The new keeper made a couple of decent saves and looks like an upgrade on Fisher at least. Makes you wonder how our fabled 'football department' plumped for the Boro Bungler in the first place.

The only good news is it wasn't another rout. Betty's Boys did just enough to get their noses in front - and Pools never looked like equalising.

The alleged 4,000+ in is hilarious - it's obvious that a lot of the lads in the North West Corner boycotted the game.

Over to you Landon!

I enjoyed it, good from Clayton. Made the game more entertaining for me. Good injection of comedy.

Was Thornton injured or was it a tactical cock up? Mind you, it is saying something if the whole team relied on a young player who (as far as i know) has never started a game for Pools till this evening.

This reminds me of Bates era, 1st half okay, 2nd half clueless.
Unfit players, players here for the salary only, players who don't really care about the club.

We got told it's a rebuild this season, so we believe we are buying good players, spend the cash, but we only offer 1 year contracts with possible extension to most players.

The real question why only one year contracts and this possibly is the real reason why some players aren't interested, knowing that come May they need to move club again.

I mean you can only imagine he was injured, as thornton actually looks like he's played a game of football before. But nonetheless how Bondo came on before Popov, Nolan or Charman for that matter is nothing short of the worst piece of management I have ever seen. Has he got something in his contract? Is Lee Rust picking the team? I'm still in shock

It was mint man

A bit of entertainment for a change, enjoyed it…and Harrogate’s’ goal was a spawny deflection…keep it up, they deserved more.

I reckon that Clayton and Liddle are making sure that they don't have to do this for the whole season and can get a canny pay off before buggering off to a NLN north team as a cushy assistant something or other.

Their solution to be being a goal down against Harrogate (who were totally sitting back). Bring Terry Bondo on and play him as a number 10. Absolutely mental.

Yep. Tonight was nowhere near as bad as the Scunthorpe fiasco Scunny were thrashed by Barrow tonight, which just shows how feckin' abysmal Saturday's performance was.

According to Rob Law it was an injury that saw Thornton taken off - shame because he's looking more and more like the first real prospect Pools' academy has unearthed since Joe Grey.

Another injury? We have obviously offended the football gods.

No
A generous round of applause for yet anutha defeat.

What we do need is more effort in front of goal where we wasted a load of opportunities, sharper reactions in the box is a necessity we lack lack that goal moocher to get the missed chances we are creating.

Thought we put in a decent performance against Harrogate . In particular in the first half. TBH i thought we looked like a top 3 team early on . New goaly looked good. So good move which made the defence more relaxed. Just need to be more assured in the box . However, and its a big however, if you cant score goals everything , workload, effort counts for nothing . The next match is a 6 pointer and we need to take the confidence from the Harrogate match and start scoring . Harrogates goal had 5 players running in the box together in a line . Thats what we should be doing . We should have a shoot on site policy and have at least 5 players in the box. Even though we lost i enjoyed the application. A top manager with league 1 and 2 experience is paramount

I questioned the previous effort levels.
Last night I have no complaints.
Was it because Smithy was in attendance.

Now fully expecting a win on Saturday.
Hope that ain't the kiss of death.
UTP.

we are looking to make the perfect unmissable chance to score. pass. pass , pass in the box withoit anybody accepting the responsibility. so what if the ball ends up on the meat aisle in morrisons its better than eventually losung the ball without a shot taking place.

with a bit of luck and the usual time out for a pools player we might see him back on boxing day.why is it the good players who get crocked and not one of the dross.

there was an improvement 1st half but why should they seem to turn it on just because the owner is at the game. DAZN is available across the pond. tamworth are one of only 3 clubs below us and if we have a reasonable side out and lose then divine intervention is the only thing to save us.

I cant be sure but is it because the dross shy out of tackles and dont over exhert themselves?

You have a point, Ozzy.
Watching Merrick charging out to protect his goal and his defenders made me wince once or twice and I commented on some of the occasions he did, that some of the thugs in this league would use it as an opportunity to knobble him. He does go in where it hurts.

If we lose Saturday we might as well revert to prayer.