Chorley | Vital Football

Chorley

O

Old Poolie

Vital Squad Member
A newly promoted team struggling to settle into the National League, or so it would seem from their results to date.
On paper Pools should be looking to get at least a draw, however as we all know football isn't played on paper and with Pools nothing is ever guaranteed!

My expectation is not great, but I am hopeful for a draw.
Though some of the comments, attributed to Hignett, in the local press regarding players availability after injury and desire to get back on the park is concerning.
Today's game and the one on Monday could prove to be yet another watershed for the management team.
 
Personally I would like to see a statement of intent from the players.

Newly promoted side whose momentum initially carried them, three draws against better sides than us, and looks as though it is waning after only a handful of games. They’ve conceded three times as many as they have scored in the last three games, so they’re looking vulnerable.

For pools players it’s the ideal time to shine because these are the type of sides, Donaldson in particular, we perform well against.

Talking to other fans most are of the opinion that a back three is when we perform at our optimum best, so we should do well today, as long as we don’t set out to defend, whether it’s a one, two or even more goal lead.

I fully expect us to win and not concede, I’m going for 3-0 pools, but we are Hartlepool United so anything is possible.
I’d be disappointed if we got less than three points and would expect a few Chinese burns and slapped legs to be administered in the dressing room afterwards if we didn’t.
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Goalless draw.
Another clean sheet on the road.

Big test on Monday, need another result (win or draw). I won't be there as I've seen enough for the time being.
 
We’re obviously nowhere near as good as we think we are or we’re simply not applying enough effort.

Then again at least 30% [40% if you include James] of your regular outfield players have kept us in the lower reaches of this league for the last two seasons so why should we expect any improvement when the same names appear on the sheet week after week?

Majorly disappointed with this result especially as Chorley, having conceded 12 goals in the last three outings, appeared to have hit the skids yet we couldn’t trouble them.

Has to be two points dropped.

Wrexham will be different gravy but to paraphrase one of the legends ‘pools are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get’

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I was hoping we might nick a win today but it wasn't to be. I expect Wrexham will be too good for us on Monday.
 
Wrexham are hardly pulling up trees at the minute, but you don’t have to work too hard to retain or regain the ball as poor sides (as we currently are) will give it to you. They’ll probably do us good and proper Juan Ugarte style.
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Not good that another 2 players have seccumbed to injury in today's game. Unbelievable the injuries we pick up, don't think other teams have such bad luck?

No doubt we'll start with a different formation, back to 442 in all likelihood.
 
Interesting analysis of Anderson by Hignett in his interview, he was praising his performance in training and in matches. From what I’ve seen of both of them I’m surprised he hasn’t been starting before Kerr.
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Alfalf2 said:
I was hoping we might nick a win today but it wasn't to be. I expect Wrexham will be too good for us on Monday.
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Are we too negative in our approach to games particularly games like yesterday’s, we often play with fear very seldom do we play with freedom.

Were we concentrating too much on our own frailties, trying to keep a clean sheet, as opposed to exploiting those of Chorley who have been shipping goals literally left, right and centre?

Speculate to accumulate and all that. Where does this fear come from, is it the players individually or collectively, is it instructions from the manager or his staff? We’ve held onto this belief that if we can’t win games, don’t lose them. That for me just heaps pressure on players’ shoulders plus if we don’t win games and draw all of them, remain unbeaten all season (impossible) we’ll inevitably get relegated with max 46pts.

As it is at the minute we either can’t field our [Hignett’s] best eleven through injuries etc. or we don’t know our best eleven, not sure which really but I did express my concerns regarding selection headaches elsewhere.
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Trying to be objective, a draw away from home with a clean sheet is, on the face of it, a decent result.
We as fans do, at times, expect too much from the outset of games. I want Pools to win every game, convincingly, but deep down I know this isn't going to happen. My concern is that Hignett, shorn of his skill players, doesn't know how to break opposition teams down with what remains.

I'd settle for another draw and clean sheet tomorrow.
 
I agree a draw and a clean sheet away from home against top three opposition would be a decent result but that’s not what this was it was a, by all accounts, dire bore draw contested by two negative sides.
Is this what we have become, are we content to be on a par with Chorley? Are our aspirations so low that we are happy with a point at a side who had 3pts from a possible 15? Is this where we want to be plying our trade?

We have added to the squad yet made no progress. We are amassing less than 1pt per game, over the season that would see us relegated. This time last season we had lost only one of the first six, winning two and drawing three, 9pts. This term we’ve got 5pts from a possible 18 and we’ve lost half of our 6 games.

Lose on Monday and we’ve stepped into quicksand, drop into the relegation berths and questions need to be asked. If August was difficult September, and the visit of Woking in particular, could prove to be an absolute nightmare.
We’re doing the same things but expecting different results. There’s no logic in what we’re doing. We’ve got to get it right quickly or draw a line under it and move on.
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