Saturday 4th September

[Randolph Haggerty]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I don’t recall you having much to say last week when we won at the team who were top of the table. The defence made some awful errors today granted, prior to that they’d conceded 2 goals in 5 league games so am sorry but to say that they are terrible overall is nonsense.

As far as Rodney goes how about he tries to stay on his feet for a start or not get nudged off the ball after the most delicate of touches. That’s nothing to do with what position he’s playing, it’s to do with him not performing. Neither for that matter was when he did get into the box second half and decided to pea-roll the ball to the keeper, still not sure if he meant that as a cross or shot. Either way it was shit.

I was on my holibobs last week.
Great win.
Yesterday was a terrible defeat.
Rodney wasn’t at his best yesterday, but he’s not done kind of automaton, he’s a young lad , still developing, and I think Clarke is fucking him.
Same Wilson, not so young though.
I’ve not warmed to Clarke, I think he’s a prick, but I’ll happily shut my gob if he gets us top 7, but I doubt we’ll get above 12th.
And the defence looked terrible yesterday, how we miss the 36 year old legge!

 

[MadJohn]

For the second half of last season, half the teams in the NL were on the beach. No threat of relegation, no chance of promotion, no worries, little effort. Some of the games were disgracefully easy. The step up from LAST season's National League to League Two is big enough to give any team pause. We've started well enough (at home) but the fixtures have been kind so far, and absolutely nobody should get carried away. Challinor is the wild card. He is Hartlepool United's most talented employee, and can make the difference between a poor season and an average one, or an average season and a good one. I'll rest a lot more easily when he signs a new contract.

 

[Randolph Haggerty]

Forgot to add we’ve won 1 in 10.

 

[Scunny Pacifist]

Fucking shit. Just liquidate the club so we can start again you fat dirty c*** Swann. So pissed off. What a waste of a Saturday. Fuck you as well Cox you yes man

How can you blame Cox? He has the worst squad in the FL due to budget constraints and yet we have picked up 6 points this season.

We didn't stand a chance today after the red card, Cox was let down today by stupidity.

Cox lost my respect last season with his interview after the Morecambe game when he admitted the players did not listen to his instructions. He was the one who picked Onariase who is crap. He needs to leave. We are sleepwalking to oblivion. Its time we started protesting.

 

[Soup Ladle]

Whoa whoa hold on a sec there Soup. Don't let the garbage that is spouted nowadays on the NL forum get to your head. You know what I'm ref. to, that crap about the National league being on a par or even better than L2 cos that's just not true.

Yes I'm with with on there being nothing nowt to fear in L2 but that should be the mindset adopted by every single newly promoted club outside the PL of course. Obviously a lot depends on the current crop of players at promotion winning sides but it's also a fact that such clubs always add more quality to the starting XI during preseason in anticipation of a tougher year ahead. Another thing is that more than a few of promoted sides start reasonably well (my club included) but it's how they fare when we get to Jan and Feb that's truly a good indicator of the overall strength of any side.

Now don't get me wrong cos I have a lot of time for Pools but I think it's fair to say that the fixture list has been kind to you. Five games in and the only side that you've come up against that is expected to make the top 7 is Tranmere and even then they haven't had the best of starts. OTOH, Sutton's first couple of games were away at two of the more fancied sides, FGR and Salford.

I hope you Poolies are in for a good year and I wish you luck but it's a good idea to not underestimate the step up from the connie to L2.

The aim is to stay up and at this time I'm reasonably confident we can.

L2 is better standard you can see that but not massively to be honest. You can argue we've played 4 sides who'll be bottom half but we've been the better side in most of those games. These are games you need points from. I think we'll be fine especially at home.

You could even argue our first X1 is weaker than the one that won the play offs, squad wise it's stronger in numbers though and that was DC's priority. We'll need that as you say in a few months time.

 

[Boletus Edulis]

Couldn't get to the game, in France, and didn't get to watch on iFollow as I had to be other, extremely dull, places.

Just watched the highlights and we still look penniless in a brothel. I rate Nadesan but I don't think he will ever be more than a ten goal a season striker. He is just unlucky in front of goal.

The Clarke goal sums Crawley up. A player wanders past ours puts a cross in to a completely unmarked forward. Obviously better than against Charlton and FGR but we have to learn that we cannot keep letting in soft goals and get anywhere.

Told the Gas fans gave a cheer for Tony Craig on his return. Touch of class that...should boo his first touch though.

Oh well, onwards to the next one.

Casey

I see that you have finally signed Alex Battle. Why did it take so long given that he played In your pre-seasons? Good luck to the lad.

 

[Sestonpoolie]

For the second half of last season, half the teams in the NL were on the beach. No threat of relegation, no chance of promotion, no worries, little effort. Some of the games were disgracefully easy. The step up from LAST season's National League to League Two is big enough to give any team pause. We've started well enough (at home) but the fixtures have been kind so far, and absolutely nobody should get carried away. Challinor is the wild card. He is Hartlepool United's most talented employee, and can make the difference between a poor season and an average one, or an average season and a good one. I'll rest a lot more easily when he signs a new contract.

Some of the games were easy,but when it came to the games that mattered,Torquay at home aside,we came out on top.
Notts were supposed to win the league or play offs.
Moneybags Wrexham & Stockport were going to win the league or plays off,Bromley were going to beat us in the play offs,we saw them all off.
Our record against the top seven & so called bigger teams was excellent & sometimes it gets overlooked.

 

[Casey]

I see that you have finally signed Alex Battle. Why did it take so long given that he played In your pre-seasons? Good luck to the lad.

I think the cash pot is empty. Not that we've got money problems just our generous owner (and he has been generous) can't afford to be so generous in the wake of the covid pandemic.

He was our top scorer in pre season but he hasn't set the world alight in his previous clubs so I'm more hoping he'll gradually come good than expecting him to set the world alight.

I think we were trying to sign a centre half before yesterday's game as well but the fa cooked up the registration. Basing that on Yems' post match interview.

Casey

 

[Sestonpoolie]

Whoa whoa hold on a sec there Soup. Don't let the garbage that is spouted nowadays on the NL forum get to your head. You know what I'm ref. to, that crap about the National league being on a par or even better than L2 cos that's just not true.

Yes I'm with with on there being nothing nowt to fear in L2 but that should be the mindset adopted by every single newly promoted club outside the PL of course. Obviously a lot depends on the current crop of players at promotion winning sides but it's also a fact that such clubs always add more quality to the starting XI during preseason in anticipation of a tougher year ahead. Another thing is that more than a few of promoted sides start reasonably well (my club included) but it's how they fare when we get to Jan and Feb that's truly a good indicator of the overall strength of any side.

Now don't get me wrong cos I have a lot of time for Pools but I think it's fair to say that the fixture list has been kind to you. Five games in and the only side that you've come up against that is expected to make the top 7 is Tranmere and even then they haven't had the best of starts. OTOH, Sutton's first couple of games were away at two of the more fancied sides, FGR and Salford.

I hope you Poolies are in for a good year and I wish you luck but it's a good idea to not underestimate the step up from the connie to L2.

You could also say Sutton’s other game was against the shambles that is Oldham(sorry Oldham fans) & still they got beat.It’s swings & roundabouts.
How many of the so called fancied teams actually made the top seven last season.?

 

[RiftHouseLad]

For the second half of last season, half the teams in the NL were on the beach. No threat of relegation, no chance of promotion, no worries, little effort. Some of the games were disgracefully easy. The step up from LAST season's National League to League Two is big enough to give any team pause. We've started well enough (at home) but the fixtures have been kind so far, and absolutely nobody should get carried away. Challinor is the wild card. He is Hartlepool United's most talented employee, and can make the difference between a poor season and an average one, or an average season and a good one. I'll rest a lot more easily when he signs a new contract.

Can,t agree with too many games being easy last season, But its all about opinions.
There,s only going to be 1 relegation place to avoid this season ( Dover already taken 1).
Still can,t see all those pros putting in little effort, Which really is an insult which i don,t believe you meant.
But we will see how easy Southend, Grimsby, Stockport,Chesterfield,Notts co and Wrexpool find it.
I think it could be a pretty good bet that none of those will win the title.
Think we,ve played well enough in all games to be fair, and should have had points from all games
So far, and i am hyper critical. Look at TR goal yesterday totally needless corner at the end.
And an awful lot of clubs last season had much more to spend than us espcially towards the end
Of the season. Which again proves the value of a manager who knows how to get the best out of players.

 

[Sestonpoolie]

I was on my holibobs last week.
Great win.
Yesterday was a terrible defeat.
Rodney wasn’t at his best yesterday, but he’s not done kind of automaton, he’s a young lad , still developing, and I think Clarke is fucking him.
Same Wilson, not so young though.
I’ve not warmed to Clarke, I think he’s a prick, but I’ll happily shut my gob if he gets us top 7, but I doubt we’ll get above 12th.
And the defence looked terrible yesterday, how we miss the 36 year old legge!

I notice Johnson wasn’t in your squad yesterday.Was he injured or just axed completely.
Bizarre not finding a place for Cass,he’s an excellent player.

 

[shoddycollins]

Anyone want to see the alternative table where all of HG's predictions so far this season are correct?

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1​	Swindon	6​	4​	2​	0​	8​	2​	6​	14​
2​	Harrogate	5​	4​	1​	0​	11​	5​	6​	13​
3​	FGR	6​	4​	1​	1​	13​	8​	5​	13​
4​	Bradford	6​	3​	2​	1​	10​	7​	3​	11​
5​	L'Orient	6​	3​	2​	1​	9​	6​	3​	11​
6​	Northampton	5​	3​	1​	1​	5​	3​	2​	10​
7​	Hartlepool	5​	3​	0​	2​	7​	4​	3​	9​
8​	Salford	6​	2​	2​	2​	7​	4​	3​	8​
9​	Barrow	6​	2​	2​	2​	8​	6​	2​	8​
10​	Colchester	5​	2​	2​	1​	7​	5​	2​	8​
11​	Rochdale	6​	2​	2​	2​	10​	9​	1​	8​
12​	Port Vale	6​	2​	2​	2​	6​	5​	1​	8​
13​	Tranmere	6​	2​	2​	2​	2​	2​	0​	8​
14​	Stevenage	6​	2​	2​	2​	6​	7​	-1​	8​
15​	Exeter	6​	1​	4​	1​	5​	5​	0​	7​
16​	Mansfield	6​	2​	1​	3​	8​	10​	-2​	7​
17​	Newport	5​	2​	1​	2​	5​	7​	-2​	7​
18​	Bristol R	6​	2​	1​	3​	5​	9​	-4​	7​
19​	Scunthorpe	6​	1​	3​	2​	4​	7​	-3​	6​
20​	Walsall	6​	1​	2​	3​	4​	8​	-4​	5​
21​	Crawley	5​	1​	1​	3​	5​	9​	-4​	4​
22​	Oldham	6​	1​	0​	5​	4​	10​	-6​	3​
23​	Sutton	4​	0​	2​	2​	3​	5​	-2​	2​
24​	Carlisle	6​	0​	0​	6​	1​	11​	-10​	0​

 

[Gassy]

Couldn't get to the game, in France, and didn't get to watch on iFollow as I had to be other, extremely dull, places.

Just watched the highlights and we still look penniless in a brothel. I rate Nadesan but I don't think he will ever be more than a ten goal a season striker. He is just unlucky in front of goal.

The Clarke goal sums Crawley up. A player wanders past ours puts a cross in to a completely unmarked forward. Obviously better than against Charlton and FGR but we have to learn that we cannot keep letting in soft goals and get anywhere.

Told the Gas fans gave a cheer for Tony Craig on his return. Touch of class that...should boo his first touch though.

Oh well, onwards to the next one.

Casey

Craig got an excellent reception, well deserved too. He had his kid there as mascot as well which was nice.

Nichols was applauded as well tbf to him. His goal scoring record here was awful but he always gave his all. He missed an absolute sitter in the first half though which promotes quite the reaction, as you can imagine.

You were unlucky on the day tbh, a couple of good saves and some excellent last ditch defending kept it 1-0. As I mentioned earlier, any other day we’d have lost that 4-2.

 

[chipmunx]

The aim is to stay up and at this time I'm reasonably confident we can.

L2 is better standard you can see that but not massively to be honest. You can argue we've played 4 sides who'll be bottom half but we've been the better side in most of those games. These are games you need points from. I think we'll be fine especially at home.

You could even argue our first X1 is weaker than the one that won the play offs, squad wise it's stronger in numbers though and that was DC's priority. We'll need that as you say in a few months time.

that is where you want points from - but last season both the relegated teams did the double over us - whilst we did the double over Champions Cheltenham - so you take the points where you can.

 

[Sestonpoolie]

Craig got an excellent reception, well deserved too. He had his kid there as mascot as well which was nice.

Nichols was applauded as well tbf to him. His goal scoring record here was awful but he always gave his all. He missed an absolute sitter in the first half though which promotes quite the reaction, as you can imagine.

You were unlucky on the day tbh, a couple of good saves and some excellent last ditch defending kept it 1-0. As I mentioned earlier, any other day we’d have lost that 4-2.

Watched the EFL on Quest earlier & saw you’ve signed Leon Clarke ,cracking signing for this level.
Mind the Crawley defence gave him a helping hand,by going completely AWOL.

 

[chipmunx]

Just seen Zanzala’s goal.

Broken record here, biggest fuck up we made not pushing the boat out to make sure he signed. If he plays all season he can get 20 goals at this level.

Have a feeling Barrow will end up making some good money from him in a years time.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1434473679673511936

 

[Gassy]

Watched the EFL on Quest earlier & saw you’ve signed Leon Clarke ,cracking signing for this level.
Mind the Crawley defence gave him a helping hand,by going completely AWOL.

Big injury issues though, but I have to say I’m impressed with his fitness/shape. We have Pitman who is still overweight, and Clarke who hasn’t had a club since June who’s in peak physical condition.

If we can keep him fit, we could actually do alright after our poor start. He was streets ahead when he came on

 

[shoddycollins]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1434473679673511936

You wonder why Crewe let him go. I know they're in League 1 but they can't have many better than him, and he was a Crewe player only seven months ago.

 

[F!RTHY]

 

[denzel ecfc]

Terrific experience down at Exeter [apart from game].

Exeter v FGR has become both clubs most regular opponents in past few years which has created some wonderful friendships.

The Exeter stewards must be best in league: they are friendly and make the extra effort to say hi to opposition fans that they recognise. Undoubtedly a wonderful welcome to St James Park.

Then the first 50 away fans through turnstiles were given voucher for a free cup of tea/coffee. WOW.

The atmosphere within the stadium was fantastic: the home crowd kept up their vociferous vocal support throughout game. Their drummer did the business.

Please any Exeter supporter pass on the general FGR supporter’s high opinion to club on our visit today.



The game itself was a letdown. Neither goalkeeper was forced to make an outstanding save although both teams had good chances to put ball in back of net but instead shot high or wide.
FGR bossed the 1st half but Exeter came back into game 2nd half.

Thanks for the comments but I disagree about the saves. Dawson's saves in the first half were outstanding. If there was a better goalkeeping performance on Saturday I'd like to see it.

 

[GTFCfish]

View attachment 15332

Yeah difference is I didn’t say that we’d sold 5500 tickets you plank.

Edit: oh and look at the score, that’s how you beat 10 men mucker.

 

[MadJohn]

Can,t agree with too many games being easy last season, But its all about opinions.
There,s only going to be 1 relegation place to avoid this season ( Dover already taken 1).
Still can,t see all those pros putting in little effort, Which really is an insult which i don,t believe you meant.
But we will see how easy Southend, Grimsby, Stockport,Chesterfield,Notts co and Wrexpool find it.
I think it could be a pretty good bet that none of those will win the title.
Think we,ve played well enough in all games to be fair, and should have had points from all games
So far, and i am hyper critical. Look at TR goal yesterday totally needless corner at the end.
And an awful lot of clubs last season had much more to spend than us espcially towards the end
Of the season. Which again proves the value of a manager who knows how to get the best out of players.

I wouldn't say that the lack of spirited opposition we saw from some opponents last season was deliberate, but it was absolutely there, and it was understandable. Usually, as you get to the business end of the season, you don't want to play the teams involved in the relegation scrap as they are (cliche incoming...) fighting for their lives. You'd rather play teams around the 14th-18th spot, relatively poor teams but not ones in danger of being relegated. For much of the second half of the season we were playing such teams every other week. Better than that, we were able to play the very worst teams, teams who would usually have been in that relegation fight, but without that threat hanging over them that can so often add an edge to their game. So in the end it was just a good team against a bad team, where the good team also had all the incentive. Win win.

Now we also had tough games against better and more motivated teams, and we generally did well in those as well. We were a good team with a good manager. But there were a number of games where the standard and intensity of opposition was comfortably below what I would expect to face most weeks this season.

Happy so far. We could make a case for being at least as good as our opponents in every game. I'm not convinced that we've played a team of real quality yet, a team where you think "that was a tough game, they'll be right up there", but that in itself is not discouraging. It's great to see that there still seems to be a decent number of pretty ordinary teams in L2. There always has been, we've often been one of them. We can be competitive.

 

[FGR Stroud]

Thanks for the comments but I disagree about the saves. Dawson's saves in the first half were outstanding. If there was a better goalkeeping performance on Saturday I'd like to see it.

I was sat near other goal so my view of goal-line action was at a distance.
Therefore my congrats to Dawson.

 

[F!RTHY]

Yeah difference is I didn’t say that we’d sold 5500 tickets you plank.

Edit: oh and look at the score, that’s how you beat 10 men mucker.

What makes you think I just came up with that number? It was put out on various platforms that the expected attendance would be 16,000+, only to be 178 short of that figure.

I just find it baffling as to why a Grimsby fan, from the league below, would feel so compelled to comment in the first place.

Life must be boring in non-league.

 

[GTFCfish]

What makes you think I just came up with that number? It was put out on various platforms that the expected attendance would be 16,000+, only to be 178 short of that figure.

I just find it baffling as to why a Grimsby fan, from the league below, would feel so compelled to comment in the first place.

Life must be boring in non-league.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Thanks for the comments but I disagree about the saves. Dawson's saves in the first half were outstanding. If there was a better goalkeeping performance on Saturday I'd like to see it.

Belshaw for us. Team of the week no less...

 

[Chris FGR]

I saw Barrow’s Robbie Gotts got voted for motm on Twitter by getting an overwhelming 90% of the vote. I wonder how many of the over 9k that voted are Leeds fans….

 

[F!RTHY]

 

[Indian Dan]

Our fans caused a bit of a rumpus at Stevenage - fighting stewards and chucking flares and waste bins at them.

Got to say, though, that by all reports Stevenage stewards were right bell ends. One refused entry to a 67 year old grandad with Parkinson’s because he thought he was drunk. Another, which sparked the trouble, told a couple of our boisterous fans ‘Don’t mess with the Taliban’ and offered them a fight - which they duly got.

Where do they dig these people up from

 

[Vanni]

You could also say Sutton’s other game was against the shambles that is Oldham(sorry Oldham fans) & still they got beat.It’s swings & roundabouts.
How many of the so called fancied teams actually made the top seven last season.?

If we're talking top 7 then 5 of the fancied teams made it - Cheltenham, Bolton, FGR, Newport and Tranmere. The other fancied sides were Exeter (8th) and Salford (9th). Many thought Port Vale would be up there as well but personally I was not that convinced about them and turns out I was right.

Bear in mind that there's very little to choose between the top sides in this division and a few of us divide the table into two parts when predicting - top half and bottom half - and tbf you did beat Carlisle, who I think are a top half side.