Ronnie Moore, Mesiah?

[Dickie Davies eyes]

Jesus Christ walked on water, fed the masses with 1 pot noodle, turned water to Ace lager etc.

But what a miracle Ronnie Moore is performing at Hartlepool!

 

[1884 Belmont]

I knew he would get them fighting. Not trying to claim I thought he'd do as well as he has, but he's a fighter. Made up for him, but hopefully the pressure of having something to lose gets to them. I don't think it will, and if he keeps them up he is manager of the season. What I'd give for Ronnie here now!

 

[ForeverUnited]

Doing a brilliant job, Can't see them going down now. I remember watching the blyth game and thinking how poor they were, amazing change around.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

The after match celebrations were very emotional , Ronnie coming on to take the applause and making sure his assistant Collins got recognition also, the players were hugging each other , all done in a way that didn't say "job done" more a case of job started

 

[Soup Ladle]

Doing a brilliant job, Can't see them going down now. I remember watching the blyth game and thinking how poor they were, amazing change around.

I have that game down as the lowest point in our history

 

[thewwfc]

Amazing feat, it's not over yet but the man deserves the freedom of Hartlepool if he pulls it off.

It does help to have shite down the bottom to be worse than you though.

At our game vs Daggers today there was an Orient fan sat with his WWFC mates, and he was saying what a shocking division it must be if we're in the auto spots...wonder what he'd think of the teams struggling to avoid the conference.

 

[elkots]

To be f

Amazing feat, it's not over yet but the man deserves the freedom of Hartlepool if he pulls it off.

It does help to have shite down the bottom to be worse than you though.

At our game vs Daggers today there was an Orient fan sat with his WWFC mates, and he was saying what a shocking division it must be if we're in the auto spots...wonder what he'd think of the teams struggling to avoid the conference.

We played burton a couple of weeks ago, they beat us 1 0 and scored in the last minute to take them top! Nothing between the two teams before the goal.

League 2 this year is shite full stop.

 

[Soup Ladle]

League 2 is always shite

 

[shoddycollins]

To be f



We played burton a couple of weeks ago, they beat us 1 0 and scored in the last minute to take them top! Nothing between the two teams before the goal.

League 2 this year is shite full stop.

Similar story with us and Shrewsbury last month. We were the better team over the game, even though they are one of the best teams in the division (and they are I'm not disputing that, they showed some quality on the day) we didn't seem so far behind them that we couldn't come out on top, it's all fairly small margins. We didn't keep our concentration for the full length of the game and conceded an equaliser, and then got rope-a-doped by them for the winner, but it was nothing like last year in League One where when you play the top teams, you could play them a hundred times and would probably lose a hundred times. The margins are small, but over the course of a season they do mean that if you're one of the poorer teams you will lose far more than you win.

 

[Murphy]

In fairness I didn't think Wycombe were great shakes this afternoon against us, solid and with a good team spirit and a fantastic core which is basically what you need. League Two has been average for a few years now, certainly not the quality it had in the days of MK, Peterborough, Bournemouth etc, but you can only beat what's put in front of you at the end of the day and Wycombe have been more than adept at that over the course of a season.

Interesting question as well, if Ainsworth takes Wycombe up and Moore keeps Hartlepool up, who do you give your manager of the season to?

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

Ronnie took over half way through so not really fair to give it to him, just being known as the man behind the greatest of great escapes will live longer in the memory, he will become a legend

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

The thing is I think there's not much difference between League One and Two save for League One tends to reward more attacking football and League Two more defensive football.

What I have recognised over the last few years is that strong sides with a defensive mentality (Shrewsbury for example) tend to look very good in League Two but then get brutally found out in League One where the attacking play is far superior and it's more common to find clinical finishers in the third tier compared to the fourth.

One of our problems in League Two was the amount of teams who turned up at Gresty Road playing for a point given we were one of the more attacking sides in the league. We struggled to break them down a lot but we rarely lost at home in our last two seasons at this level save for our bad start in 2011-12. Our attacking philosophy served us well upon promotion in our first season in League One where we were safely mid-table.

Compare Shrewsbury to us, in League Two when we went up together they were seen as the second strongest side in the league after Swindon. It was built on a defensive philosophy with a very clinical striker in Jim Collins. They lost Collins and then failed in League One because their playing style encouraged sides to attack against them and they lacked that finisher to establish themselves at League One level. This led to a lot of narrow defeats where that 20+ goal striker could have just about kept them up.

It genuinely wouldn't surprise me next season if Bury or Southend, should they go up, do considerably better than the Top 3. These two sides have a problem breaking sides down at home but with more away sides going for it against lesser clubs at League One level, it might just work to their advantage. I could see all of the Top 3 promoted sides struggling badly in League One next season. The playoff winners never tend to be the weakest of the four promoted sides save for Dagenham in 2010-11, although that was more down to a lack of resources.

 

[thewwfc]

In fairness I didn't think Wycombe were great shakes this afternoon against us, solid and with a good team spirit and a fantastic core which is basically what you need. Wycombe have been more than adept at that over the course of a season.

Agreed, the game yesterday was basically a turgid 0-0 in terms of quality with a goalmouth scramble that fell in our favour, but we just played a bit more gung-ho than you did. I would have been livid if Cureton had put his shot away at the end but it would have been fair enough, we just took our chance and you didn't.

But consistency is really most of what counts at this level, there are so few sides who get promoted from L2 that you think, wow, they're a class apart.

If we get promoted I'm pretty positive we'll struggle as we have a tiny budget even for this division. Unless Ainsworth can magic some quality loan castoffs from Brentford and QPR I can't see us doing anything more than yo yoing straight back down, but oh well who cares, I was expecting us to be midtable at best this season.