The Poolie Bunker

Merrick sorts out his problem.
Of his left hand to left post gap.
Conceded about 3 goals now and it's only a small gap but somehow the ball ends up in the net.

Then we win for sure.
UTP.

Fylde have hit a rocky patch after their great start to the season - they've lost 4 of their last 6 league games, same as Pools. No doubt Pete Wild will be targetting a positive result.

Fylde are yet another NL team with no fans and loads of money Carlisle took a big following to their place and beat them a month ago.

problem is these type of team love to get one over on us and ex league clubs like us. if a nd when we get back into the league we,ll not be free of them then. progress in football my arse.

Win this and amazingly we'd be five points off the play offs.

3 points covering 6 teams. the league could look a lot different by the end of next month.

On paper November is a peace of piss.
We see how it pans out!

Feel Charman would love to get one over his former club, leave him on the bench and bring him on at about the hour mark when legs are tiring. Replace Popov with Nolan who on his showing on Saturday is responding to his 1 2 1 with Pete Wild.

Our manager wears his heart on his sleeve and you can’t fail to be carried along by it….he certainly gives you a reassurance we’ve lacked for years.

Amen to that.

Got a feeling this game may be our first draw of the season

Fylde have recently signed Gregg Olley from York and Luke McCormack from Yeovil, two very good attacking midfielders who I would have liked us to sign. We don't usually get anything there, I think a point would be a bonus. Of course the big test comes on Saturday away to Champions elect Boreham Wood who beat a Boro U21 team 7-1 last week, the team that beat us 10-0 of course.

That can only happen if Halifax v Barrow is a draw and Hornchurch don't beat Yeovil.

only been there once an the wind was bad. just off a motorway in the middle of nowhere with a ground that looks more impressive from the outside than it does inside. its not the results that matter the most in these two games but the players attitudes. will they continue like the last part of saturdays game or back to the marine standard of the week before.

To be fair, the Boro U21s didn't beat 'us' they beat Pools' brand new U21 side without a single first-team squad member involved - a horrendous mismatch.

That aside, Pools aren't going to play a better team than Boreham Wood all season, and away from home at that. Sure Pete Wild will relish the challenge and fire his side up for the game. Maybe a blessing that Neo Eccleston will sit that one out, as he never needs firing up!

Aye tonight and Saturday are perfect opportunities to send a message and I'm sure Pete will be emphasising that to his squad.
Show them that we are not the collection of dummies that our league position was indicating. Play with a bit of pride and maybe a touch of swagger.
On Saturday Charman received the ball, looked up and said to himself this is fecking going in. Let's have some more of that belief.

Tonight's squad basically picks itself as we've got 9 players missing: Team news from the OS:

'Neo Eccleston will serve a three-match suspension after his third red card of the campaign at the weekend.

Jack Earing and Charlie Thornton miss out with foot injuries, while Cam John remains sidelined with a hamstring issue. Max Thompson and Nathan Fisher are unavailable through illness.

Jay Benn, Corey McKeown and Owen Hampson continue to recover from their respective injuries.'

For me Eccleston is streets ahead of any of the other young signings Pools have made this summer, but he's no bloody use if he keeps picking up suspensions. He's a marked man now as far as NL referees are concerned, so Pete Wild needs to give him a serious talking too.

My guess for tonight is Sheron to right back and Hunter into the side in midfield.

No back up keeper fit, so Smithy will have to step up. Can he be any worse than Fisher?

I'm sure Illunga has played on the right for us. Will we keep the 3,5,2 or go 4,4,2?
I suppose if we go 4 at the back he's got the option of playing McNally on the right too.
Personally I'd stick with Saturdays formation and make 1 change on the right rather than shuffling the pack.

What is wrong with Merrick? Not in the above list.

Chelsea have dictated that part of his rehabilitation stops him playing mid week.

Not a bad start, Harris after 2 minutes

How was the first half? Did Smith have much to do?

So far so good. Fylde don't seem to have any pace in their team so Pools putting men behind the ball is making them play in front of us.

What great loan signings Clark and Lavelle have been! Smith looks very well protected at the minute.

Appreciate the reply. We need another goal because as we all know, one daft mistake is all it takes for it all to go tits up.

I should imagine Fylde will mix it up for the second half as they've just been going around in circles for the first half (so well done Pools).

If we could start winning more second balls and hanging onto it for more than three passes we could be onto something really good here.

Smiths kicking has been great. He's got tonnes of presence in the box (he's a bit bonkers - let's be honest) and he hasn't really put a foot wrong so far tonight.

Popov on for Charman. Injury or tactical? We could do without another injury.

illunga has been doing a cracking job at left back so far tonight given that he's more of an attacking winger.

1-1

Was it a good goal or cock up in defence?

2-1 down now, conceding a goal on the break seconds after we took a corner.

Fylde 2-1 up. There was a certain inevitability.

Second best all game, early goal then defended. Something of a predictable outcome

Do you think Merrick being missing made a difference?

3-1

Terrible RB performance, thought Clarke was poor on Saturday and tonight looks worse

3-1 now. A significant bump in the road.

We were winning 1-0 till the 76th minute. Why did we collapse so badly?

Not really, just defended all game and we are not good enough to do that. Can't blame Smith for any of them, thought he did ok

Wildy messed up.
But will blame the players.

How did he mess up?

Well we played well for 70 mins but you could see the opposition scoring . After we went 1-0 up then more or less it was all Flyde. Quicker more skillful , better passing . Once they scored the scoreline was inevitable . We sat back and tried to protect the lead but the gulf in class is massive . We did well with what we have but there is no way we are anywhere near promotion candidates . Can’t fault the effort but it’s just about lack of quality. It’s going to be along season. Just need to beat the teams below us and Wilde has done his job . Too many injuries also not helping us. Could be 8-0 against Boreham Wood. Smith played ok in goal and Harris played well before being taken off after 53 mins. So to summarise it’s all about surviving this league I’m afraid.

When Harris went off there was no counter attacking threat and there is little chance of defending 100% successfully.
After Saturday we will most likely be in a relegation place as only goal difference is keeping us afloat.

Once again tonight and we all know our midfield is so so poor that team carnt really move up the pitch because of this and once he brought popov on that was it down to 10 men and a goalie thinking he is a goalie lol.
This season is a case of just stay up its as simple as that

I expected Fylde to score because let’s be honest we were just focused on defending basically as soon as we scored. Not sure why Charman was brought off, hopefully not an injury, but if it wasn’t, it made absolutely no sense tactically. Similarity with Harris, as soon as he went off we had no goalscoring threat. Popov runs around a lot but is absolutely way off, and Hugill was anonymous as usual.

Despite that though the midfield is the most concerning thing. Sheron played his usual, plenty of running but limited in possession, and Miley continued to show why he’s my least favourite player in the team.

Hopefully that’s the last time we see Smith in goal as well.

Again it's down to this: We let the opposition have the ball for most of the game and sit back (or it just that we just can't get hold of the ball?). We don't win many/any second balls and we literally can't string three passes together. It's going to be a long season.

Yet again one step forward and two steps back. I expected at least a useful point tonight from a hard fought battle but no, the goalkeeping curse and the distinct lack of quality in midfield result in nul points. I don't expect anything but damage limitation against Boredom Wood but whoever is running the recruitment process this week need to get the fabled midfield reinforcements in PDQ - and they may as well snap up yet another keeper while they are on the case as having Chelsea dictate when Max Marrick can play or not is surely not acceptable except in the very short term?