I was asked the immortal question off one of my footy gambling mates in the White House on Friday night...."How do you reckon Pools will get on tomorrow, I'm thinking of taking them on my coupon?
I simply answered "I haven't got a fuckin clue mate!!"
And there in lies the enigma that is Pools this season.
Promising openings can lead to abject setbacks such as at Huddersfield, Southampton and especially Carlisle on Tuesday night. Glorious and outstanding away wins at the likes of Swindon and Oldham have been followed up by cup exits at the hands of Grimsby and Kettering.
In short, you never know whats coming up in the next 90 minutes.
To illustrate the fact, Pools kindly obliged by banging in 3 goals in the first 25 minutes against Millwall and yet in that same space of time could have let three in as the crossbar twice came to Flinders rescue as well as the lino's flag
As well as Pools have played in the opening phase of the last three defeats, they have been guilty of not getting that crucial second goal whilst being one up. Chances where spurned against Soton before Lalanna equalised and the same can be said with Boydy's missed header against Hudds to put us in a commanding 2-0 lead. Christ we could have been 4-0 up at Carlisle in the first 20 minutes before we decided it was to wet and windy to continue playing.
Not today. After Hartley had shown great composure to bury his shot into the corner of the net with his wrong foot, we then proceeded to carve out two more chances and effectively finish the game off before the half hour mark. Boydy does what he does best and showed great awareness to anticipate their centre half trying to let the ball bounce and run through to the keeper and finished well on a tight angle. The third was an exceptional goal, Boyd twisted and turned out of a tight situation, sprayed the ball wide to McSweeny who sucked in two defenders on the right before teeing up Austin for a deep far post cross which Bjornasson bravely headed in under pressure from keeper and centre half - that goal reminded me a lot of Paul Baker in his pomp.
3 gilt edge chances, 3 goals. Saying that Millwall, and in particular their no 10, had no luck at all. Flinders has inexplicably decided that as well as taking a touch from a centre half's pass back, he also has to undergo some Jonny Wilkinson style routine before clearing the ball downfield. His hopelessly late clearance cannoned off said no 10 and ricocheted off the bar and to safety - if that had gone in, heads may have dropped and Turner might once again had to have a look into his book of "Ridiculous excuses for losing a football match - volume 2"
A well worked move saw that poor no 10 smack the bar with a full on header and then he had a sublime finish chalked off for offside, just to rub salt into the wounds he outmuscled Sweeney covering at full back but saw his one on one effort saved well by Flinders legs.
Half time and 3-0 up, yet everyone i talked to was off the same opinion "we need a fourth!!!" only pools eh!
Anyhow, the second half we defended stoutly after a jittery opening 10 minutes to the half and ran out comfortable winners.
A lot of stand out performers. The two centre backs of Collins and Liddle dovetail perfectly, whereas Collins shows steel and grit and determination, it is the overall play of Liddle that will make it hard to hold on to him in January. The move back to centre half from his midfield position is one of Turners few decisions this season that should be publicly lauded. From centre half he covers the ground well and always seems to be in the right place at the right time. He makes timely interceptions not because he is lightening quick but because he reads the game so well. And if the rumours are substantiated that Mowbrays Celtic scouts have been watching him then i hope they werent at the game today as his Cryuff turn, when he sent 3 of their lads (and two of ours!) the wrong way, would have had them purring back to their boss. We'll have a hard time keeping hold of him in the near future if this keeps up.
Wheras Boydy showed good feet and a poachers knack for a goal, it was Bjornasson i was more impressed with today. You can see that the lad genuinely wants to do well for the club. His goal at Carlisle was celebrated with a good deal of exuberance and the obligatory badge kiss and his overall hold up play, nod downs and easy lay offs meant he was well worth his cracking headed goal today. If he can get to grips with English lower league footy and especially the pace of it, he will turn out to be an asset for the club and offer something different up front. I hope he takes confidence from this 90 minutes and goes on a cracking xmas run of form.
The other player deserving of praise was Leon McSweeney. Apart from his cross for Bjornasson's goal at Carlisle, he was pretty abject at Brunton Park. A view shared by Turner who had dropped him today to accomadate Jones's return from suspension. But his late inclusion due to Jones's sickness proved to be a blessing as his non stop work rate and enthusiasm proved infectious, so much so that even Sweeney and Humphries started to combine well and more importantly close down. If there is one major plus point to take from this game its not the 3 goals but its the manner in which we kept a clean sheet. Time and time again, every Pools player to a man harried and harrassed there opposing number until a Millwall player played a stray pass or was simply forced into lumping it forward in sheer frustration.
This was a pale shadow of the Millwall side from last season but it still has to go down as an exceptional win. Point is though, we have proved in sporadic bursts that we can put disciplined performances like that in. We need to go on a run now, starting at Southend next week, and prove that we can be consistantly this good.
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