The Poolie Bunker

It really hit home on saturday after the match, talking to a few Rochdale fans in the bar. "You are shite!" was their unanimous verdict and there is absolutely no argument against it.

Coming from Rochdale fans, that is hard to take. I know we have no god given right to be better than any other team, but it shows just how far we have slipped back in the last 18 months.

Rochdale, the longet serving team in League 2 and perennial strugglers against relegation. Never been known for good football and entertainment. Their fans have seen it all when it comes to crap football, probably the national experts on the subject.

When their resounding verdict is the Hartlepool are shite, we know we have a problem!!

Up until that point, I was probably in a state of denial, putting down the poor performances down to all sorts of excuses. Reality has now hit home like a steam train. We are officially shite! We have big problems! It will get worse if things don't change quickly! The players' body language is defeatist, the manager is totally uninspiring with his comments, the fans are losing faith and will soon start disappearing. I don't have the answer but I sure hope someone does or we could be staring another relegation in the face.

Difficult to argue against but I'll have a go. I thought Gary Liddle played well, really well. Even after his booking when he had to temper it down to 80% he still played well. Daly won more than his fair share in the air but no one ran onto him. Nelse and Clarke where streets ahead of their back line. Willie Boland showed experience and guile. Even his fouls were judicious. Ritchies toothless, Daz Williams was bit rusty, Robbo does well but no-one supports his runs and he goes up a cul de sac. Ali Gibb is invisible. James Brown is lightweight but took his goal well. The Mail On Sunday said one of their defenders 'toe-poked' it past his own keeper. silly boy. Dimi didn't make one save. Effion showed some nice touches here and there when he came on.

Me and Monkey Harris agreed that he should have had David Foley running at James Sharp.

I read an interesting comment yesterday from a Sports Psychologist that any team takes on the characteristics of it's leaders. Well FFS give the captaincy back to Nelse. The evidence was there for all to see.

I don't think we are shite, I think we are under performing massively and have caught that losing mentality that is impossible to shrug off.

2 years ago we were the complete opposite and had the ability to beat teams that we didn't deserve to be beating, and getting wins.

Defensively we are excellent, we have comparable records with the best teams in the division. Its the final third that we're struggling in and if Wilson can find the right man then I'm sure we'll be up in the top half and challenging.

I don't think we are that far away from being a good side but it'll be a massive test of Wilsons ability to turn this round, but I have doubts whether he will.

Nobody was shouting. I was in the bar after the game talking to some of them.

Having had a few days to think about it, my opinion hasn't changed. We are a very poor side with very little prospect of promotion.

Maybe all we need is a bit of luck, a run of two or three wins and the confidence will coming streaming back. I hope this is the case, but it needs to happen quickly or we will lose a lot of fans.