Week ending 30th October

[Optimistic Poolie]

Got a feeling we will get a good win on Saturday, which normally results in us getting beat.

Neil Byrne suspended for this one, but Liddle should come straight back into the defence to replace him, after coming on at 2-0 down vs Harrogate on Saturday.

0-2 Pools.

 

[The Terminator]

Great news.
Didn't you do one a few years back & we won 2-1?

Yep, that day we drew 0-0 and played the last 30mins with ten men, the 2-1 was the season before and on BT Sport.

Game now officially "sold out" in the home ends, but with season ticket holders and people who've bought tickets for the sake of it for £5 and not bothered if they go or not, not bothering to turn up then I reckon it will be a crowd of just under/around 7k.

I won't be suprised if Jackett changes our shape back to 4-4-2 and we have more of a go, equally we need to try something new up front, I'd rest Harry Smith and play Aaron Drinan up front again so we try and play more passing football like me did a few weeks ago.

We're resolute side to play against and hard to beat, but until we start taking our chances again and being more brave and cohesive when attacking we will start losing more games than we do drawing, you can only go so far without scoring enough goals and all that.

 

[BarraMatt]

We will need to score twice at the minimum to win as Alex Newby will definitely score.

 

[Indian Dan]

Bradford beat us comfortably, although I didn’t think they were that good. I reckon it said more about our lamentable home form.

We couldn’t even score against Colchester, come within a minute of losing to Rochdale, getting outmuscled and beaten by Carlisle, another 0-0 v Tranmere where both keepers were probably MoM and even our single home win v Mansfield was a struggle.

Nobody should use playing against us at home as any sort of benchmark for their ‘brilliantness’!

 

[AR27]

Depends which Bradford City turn up. About as likely to win the game 3-0 as we are to lose it 3-0 based on recent weeks.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Lots of rain falling over the North West today and in the next 48 hours. Wonder if there might be postponements

 

[Robshep]

Lots of rain falling over the North West today and in the next 48 hours. Wonder if there might be postponements

Depends on the pitch and how high above sea level the ground is. Cumbria is getting hammered so any games there could be at risk. It floods easily up that way.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Trains north of Preston have been knackered the last two days, so don't know if that will affect fans travelling tomorrow.

Our pitch 'should' be okay as we supposedly did drainage work on it over the summer. It might not suit our slick passing style though.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Depends which Bradford City turn up. About as likely to win the game 3-0 as we are to lose it 3-0 based on recent weeks.

We are a strange team and I believe we top the xG for the league which doesn’t shock me, despite some of the negativity around the place.

It’s no exaggeration but for Orient, Crawley and Hartlepool possibly Exeter as well we could have comfortably beat every other team, I know most can say that but our chances are often so clear cut it’s pathetic at times how wasteful we are. That’s ignoring some of the cheap goals we’ve let in as well.

We should have beaten Salford, Walsall and Bristol Rovers at a canter but have lost 7 points just there. The league would look very different now had we scored simple chances.

I feel like most in this league are fairly even, it’s just about who will be more clinical long term which is why I think we need more quality in attack in January.

 

[loz]

Depends which Bradford City turn up. About as likely to win the game 3-0 as we are to lose it 3-0 based on recent weeks.

Agree. In the best and worst thread, I thought about putting Bradford City for both. One advantage though; we haven't a clue how City will play so the FGR manager won't have a clue either.

 

[loz]

I think we need more quality in attack in January.

And make sure that Canavan stays fit. We look so much more organised when he is there.

 

[loz]

which is why I think we need more quality in attack in January.

Someone like the little fellows at Newport and Stevenage look as though they would fit in nicely.

 

[loz]

We should have beaten Salford, Walsall and Bristol Rovers at a canter

I think most teams could say something along those lines. Against Walsall and Bristol, 5 or 6 goals would not have been an exaggeration but to counter that, how many goals should Rochdale have scored at our place?

 

[WilsdenBantam]

I think most teams could say something along those lines. Against Walsall and Bristol, 5 or 6 goals would not have been an exaggeration but to counter that, how many goals should Rochdale have scored at our place?

Rochdale could have scored a few but we more than made up for that by missing plenty more chances ourselves, the 3 I mentioned were all one way traffic for most of the game and only we have ourselves to blame for it being a contest.

 

[BarraMatt]

Trains north of Preston have been knackered the last two days, so don't know if that will affect fans travelling tomorrow.

Our pitch 'should' be okay as we supposedly did drainage work on it over the summer. It might not suit our slick passing style though.

May be a detriment to both teams, from what I've seen of the various highlight clips Rochdale like to knock the ball about too.

 

[EricSabin]

Be interested to see our attendance today with the East Midlands derby in the rugby taking place 500m down the road at the same time…

15,200 sell out at Franklin’s Gardens

 

[kieran_vale]

My guess today is we will switch back from the 3-4-3 to our more standard 3-5-2 with Politic dropping back to the bench. Garrity should be available for this one but I’d be looking at starting Jake Taylor or Brad Walker personally.

No doubt at some point in this game Kettle will make himself the main talking point purely because he’s Trevor Kettle and it’s what he does.

 

[F!RTHY]

Be interested to see our attendance today with the East Midlands derby in the rugby taking place 500m down the road at the same time…

15,200 sell out at Franklin’s Gardens

Franklin’s Gardens - I had to google that. Never heard nor seen it before. Looks a lovely little ground. Slightly off-topic, but has a ground share ever been discussed?

 

[EricSabin]

Franklin’s Gardens - I had to google that. Never heard nor seen it before. Looks a lovely little ground. Slightly off-topic, but has a ground share ever been discussed?

I don’t think it has from what I can recall. Their crowds (and subsequent ground redevelopment) have only come on fairly recently (last 10-20 years I think) with rugby turning professional in 1995. It’s a nice ground and produces a good atmosphere but I think separate grounds works better although Cobblers fans aren’t attached to Sixfields.

Mid 90’s they were getting 2,000 and their usual gates hover around the 12-15,000 mark, considering they’re essentially pushing to win the Premiership and also compete in rugby’s champions league is a bit meh. By rugby standards it’s not bad but if we were a championship side you’d think we’d hope to draw the same crowds.

 

[Indian Dan]

Huge traffic jam on M6 northbound. Not sure if our fans will get there.

 

[shoddycollins]

Line up for our game at Northampton (2pm kickoff)

____________________Howard______________________
Mellor_____Whelan_______McDonald_____Armer
______________Guy__________Mellish_______________
Gibson_____________Clough___________Dickenson
___________________Alessandra____________________

Bench: Jensen, Feeney, Riley, Charters, Mampala, Abrahams, Young

Largely as expected, nice to see Mellor back, hopefully we can be a bit more defensively sound. No place for Joe Riley, which has brought an expected meltdown among our fans, but also hard to see how he could fit in without either dropping a more experienced and more suited right-back for him, or going to a three-man midfield and dropping one of the three in Gibson, Clough and Dickenson who have looked promising recently. I can't really see him as a centre midfielder in a midfield two, he's too wide but also not attacking enough to play as an out and out winger. It's unfortunate to not fit a player of that quality into the system but it is what it is. Similar comment about Feeney who as an individual has looked our best defender so far this season, but hasn't managed to form a decent partnership with anyone he's been put at centre-back with.

 

[hellogregory]

Line up for our game at Northampton (2pm kickoff)

____________________Howard______________________
Mellor_____Whelan_______McDonald_____Armer
______________Guy__________Mellish_______________
Gibson_____________Clough___________Dickenson
___________________Alessandra____________________

Bench: Jensen, Feeney, Riley, Charters, Mampala, Abrahams, Young

Largely as expected, nice to see Mellor back, hopefully we can be a bit more defensively sound. No place for Joe Riley, which has brought an expected meltdown among our fans, but also hard to see how he could fit in without either dropping a more experienced and more suited right-back for him, or going to a three-man midfield and dropping one of the three in Gibson, Clough and Dickenson who have looked promising recently. I can't really see him as a centre midfielder in a midfield two, he's too wide but also not attacking enough to play as an out and out winger. It's unfortunate to not fit a player of that quality into the system but it is what it is. Similar comment about Feeney who as an individual has looked our best defender so far this season, but hasn't managed to form a decent partnership with anyone he's been put at centre-back with.

Do you think he left it to Skelton to pick the team today having only had 2 days training?
Just looks very much like a Skelton 11 and I can’t see anything really changing with it.

 

[hellogregory]

Northampton 4-0 Carlisle
is my prediction having seen the starting lineup.

 

[kieran_vale]

Hmm no Worrall. Not ideal. Suppose Gibbo can play on his natural side for once though.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1454432902964469762

 

[AR27]

We're unchanged. Worked last week but looks negative for a home game.

 

[Salvador]

Just as I pull up in Barrow a pitch inspection announced. Great luck.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Kick off moved to 3.30 subject to a pitch inspection - fucksake. I'm guessing the match ref has turned up and has some issues with the pitch.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Match on. Presumably Declan Bourne's also a wanker about pitch inspections too.

 

[shoddycollins]

Do you think he left it to Skelton to pick the team today having only had 2 days training?
Just looks very much like a Skelton 11 and I can’t see anything really changing with it.

I don't think he'll have left it to Skelton, he said he wasn't going to make major changes in his first game and as far as the line-up goes, he hasn't.

 

[Salvador]

Match on. Presumably Declan Bourne's also a wanker about pitch inspections too.

Common sense decision really given how nice the weather is now. Pitch will only get drier with time. A lot of refs would’ve called this off on the original inspection.
Just hope we don’t regret the game being on!