er that's it. Woods groin may/will prevent him playing. Preston was a happy release from the paint dry and MMM can concentrate on the league, league cup and FA cup. I go H/POOL 0 Town 1, although their GK was in League 2 team of the week as was our Mangan? come on town Floreat Salopia!
Hartlepool's first home win. 1-0 (Harewood). Jeff Stelling will be dancing in the streets. Attendance 3245
Just back and a very disappointing display. Roland was sat not very far away in our end but showed no real reaction to the performance. Defensively we looked decidedly shaky and could have conceded more. We had plenty of pressure at times without really creating clear cut chances. Plenty of shots and quite a few on target but the keeper was never really tested above the routine. My main criticism is over the defence. Two clean sheets in our last 2 meaningful games and MM changed it to accomodate Ellis who started off very poorly and probably caused this to rattle the others. Clark had an infuriating game. Lots of possession and often over egging it and losing the ball or shooting feebly wide/over. Hopefully he will learn. It took Akpa Akpro and Mangan coming on to actually result in working the keeper.
KDS, Thanks for the report - such displays are sometimes the lot of the long-distance supporter. With so many new players it is amazing we seem to have gelled as much as we have so far. It is still a positive start to the season overall and we do know this league will always be a battle. I will be going to Stevenage to lend my voice to the support and lets hope we can settle down in defence and find a cutting edge.
Giving Stevenage a miss. Went there the season before last. Not the worst place, though. Eight years since the last time I was in Hartlepool and then Town won 3-0, so I knew it was extremely unlikely that lightning would strike twice. Pool supporters before the match thought they had no chance but one I spoke to after said it was the best they had played this season. They probably should have had 2 penalties also in the second half.
Cheers kds for the report, one of the 280 odd to make it. Let's hope that we return to winning ways very soon.
