Hartlepool v Swindon Town Matchday Thread

[adje]

Concur.

I get the notion that we need more experience in the team but not tracking men is not an experience issues. That fitness and / or desire or possibly bad tactics (if we aren’t matching up man for man)

You shouldn’t need to have 300 football league games under your belt to know you need to track runners.


I know context is vital here but after that lacklustre effort I’m convinced PDC would have left Kadji in Hartlepool and got the coach to drive off without him.

This is true

[Mooneyraker]

Just back after a long drive and a chance to gather my thoughts now that the initial rage has lifted slightly...

This was Morris' first major misstep for me. I've given him pretty much a free hit until now, and think he has had plenty of circumstances conspiring against him. However, in this match his game management was really poor and frankly concerning. Post match candour was good as ever though.

As others have alluded to, why are we still continually taking Williams and Austin off when we have gone to shit without them on the pitch time and time again recently? Williams is a 29 year old international footballer. He is capable of playing 90 mins. Charlie Austin is 33, not 39. He is capable of playing 90 mins, even if he has to drop deeper. I'd rather have them on the pitch at 50% than Kadji/Adeloye. Their nous and experience is critical to this brittle team.

Other general thoughts:

Being sat right behind Brynn it is obvious that he is a massive part in why our defence has been a shambles. The guy's body language is dreadful. He couldn't be less imposing or confident. He doesn't say a word. His kicking was awful. He should also have stopped the second goal. Brewitt is the only natural talker in the defence. FBT tries a bit. I desperately want to see us move away from the loan goalkeeper model next year.

FBT was rank yesterday and looked every bit the left back playing centre back. Has he ever not got a single MOTM vote before? He ran down blind alleys all day and together with Tomlinson and Brynn created a ghastly little triangle of shit, endlessly faffing around at the back and putting us under pressure.

Tom Brewitt is the best defender at this club. He was playing second tier in the US last season and then spent a few months on the scrapheap looking for a contract. Pathetic that we had no one better when 'our aim was promotion', but that's not his fault. I really like him and we should get him tied down. Regardless of the results he has looked committed and like he cares, as well as outperforming anyone else at the back.

Kadji should never play for us again. He has the worst first touch of a 'midfielder' I've ever seen. He seemingly can't do anything. The lack of effort to get close to their second goalscorer was simply pathetic.

RHM looks a find. Get him on board for next year.

What does Lavinier have to do to get game time?

Why have we not tried Clayton as a DM? How bad can he be?

I'm not sure what a Saidou Khan is. He's clever in tight spaces but can't head, doesn't break up play and doesn't create anything either. If anyone wants him we should snap their hand off.

I still believe Morris can get us up there next year if he is allowed to pick his own squad. That is a massive if. Season tickets will fall off a cliff and then the budget is slashed. They need to do something now to get people buying, and their options are limited as we aren't winning games. To me they either need Austin and Williams to commit and then say that is our statement of intent, or bin Sandro. He isn't solely responsible I know but whatever.

Edit - Shade was also pathetic. Why was he not subbed?

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

To be honest the only thing that has changed since August to October is that reality has bitten.

If you break the season down, preseason was an absolute shambles and we looked poor.

We started at Harrogate looking poor and undercooked. Then between August and October we picked up a few wins but we still looked a poor team. All the stat’s were saying we should be conceding more goals than we were, Brynn was playing out of his skin and winning player of the month every month

It really was massively fucking obvious we were completely in the shit that early.

Look at the absolute shit show the Carlisle away thread became back in mid fucking August. Its good for a laugh.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

There will likely be some well backed teams in this league fighting for the same pool of players as us (Wrexham, Stockport, Gillingham, FGR, Mansfield, Salford) and sadly I can’t see us financially outmuscling them so our best option is probably to set ourselves up now to try and get our ship sorted as early as realistically possible.

Yeah, this is how we've absolutely fucked it not getting promoted this season or last. Last seasons League Two was probably one of the worst I've ever seen and this season wasn't much better. Next season will be tougher.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

I reckon this seasons league 2 is worse than last seasons

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Concur.

I get the notion that we need more experience in the team but not tracking men is not an experience issues. That fitness and / or desire or possibly bad tactics (if we aren’t matching up man for man)

You shouldn’t need to have 300 football league games under your belt to know you need to track runners.


I know context is vital here but after that lacklustre effort I’m convinced PDC would have left Kadji in Hartlepool and got the coach to drive off without him.

Its absolutely fitness playing a part. Which goes back to my concerns about pre-season and Lindseys comments about doing ball work in the first session and all that bollocks about wanting to play fatigued being huge red flags he didn't know what he was doing pre-season and they wouldn't be fit. Its happening before our eyes.

I know not all the players were here in pre-season but adding people that have been without a club for months only makes it worse.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

I reckon this seasons league 2 is worse than last seasons

Yeah a much of muchness but both definitely will be worse than next season.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

Yeah a much of muchness but both definitely will be worse than next season.

Agreed

[RobertT]

Concur.

I get the notion that we need more experience in the team but not tracking men is not an experience issues. That fitness and / or desire or possibly bad tactics (if we aren’t matching up man for man)

You shouldn’t need to have 300 football league games under your belt to know you need to track runners.

I would fully agree with you aside form the fact you can clearly see we have an issue that is rampant throughout the squad - the single unifying factor of our squad being they are nearly all lacking in league football experience.

Any one individual you could certainly lay that challenge to - you don't need 300 games to follow a player.  The problem I think is still a squad one though - there are few players who can correct the poor behaviours of others in the game and everyone has spent 4-5 years + playing Academy football, where I imagine a large portion of the game occurs in front of you when defending, due to the possession based approach.

That is where I think the inexperience comes in - it's not that they don't know what to do, it's that they are not used to it.  They are not used to a team sending in a barrage when there are 10 minutes to go because their careers may well be on the line.  They are not used to being barged into, to being fouled for no apparent reason, to players playing percentage balls in behind them all the time.

Hutton's movement on the goal at the end says it all - if you are his centre half friend, you surely shout at the fucker - where the fuck are you going?  We don't seem to have people able to do that, or understand it in the heat of battle.  They are all used to watching the other team take 15 passes to get into our half.

[bathford]

The trouble is, a young squad allows things to get to them. Opponents have twigged that we are vulnerable in the last 10 mins.

Loosing 1-0 at that stage isn’t an issue. I don’t believe that that ability isn’t there it’s purely physiological.

Give Morris a full pre season with some seasoned pros and we’ll be ok.

[Wobbly Bob]

Hopefully those that remain will be better for the experience next season.

Then again, players can regress as well as progress or just stagnate.

Yet another thing for Morris to look out for.

Hope that he is relishing the challenge.
He'll need to.

[RedRag]

What if you take Lindsey’s win ratio from October as that’s when the wheels fell off well and truly as our results have fallen off a cliff since then. We may have been 6th when he left but with the games in hand other teams had we’d have been in about the same position as we are now. This squad is just a bit shit.

Facts are facts.

We were 6th when SL departed.  Only Bradford in 8th had a game in hand which had they WON would have seen them leapfrog us.  Their goal diff'ce was worse.  So at worst 7th and still 5 points off automatic.

Look at the last ten games form table (ie all Morris) and we 23rd - and only off BOTTOM of the EFL on goal difference.

https://footystats.org/england/efl-league-two/form-table

[Mr Stevens]

On the plus side, the Hartlepool fans we met were very pleasant.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

I've no idea if Tony Gough is on here but if you are cracking photo mate.

[Mooneyraker]

On the plus side, the Hartlepool fans we met were very pleasant.

Probably one of the friendliest away days in football.