Match Ratings..........I'll give it a go

[navypie]

McDonnell.........9......hold up, first half rating only.....averages out at .....4.5.
Brindley...........bad today, really bad.......1.5
DKE...........never a left back in a million years, not sure if he played well or the others made him look good. MOTM....6
Rawlo........better in the 2nd....4
Long.........difficult to rate a kid in such a sh1te storm but one great block in the 1st half saved a certain goal.....5
Doyle........might have talked a good game recently.....2
Rose........I like Rose as a kid but as a midfield player, he's Sunday morning at best.....2
Enzio.......moving on........2
Robbo......one great run and shot ( I know, we had one you know ) but nothing else....3
Bertie.......not good at all......3
Dennis......put a real clever header in early doors to put Enzio through (who for some reason when in on goal , checked back ) but sacrificed at half time when Ardley decided to go for the jugular.....4

Ozzy......some nice touches.........4
Crawford......on an hiding to nothing........4

Ardley.......a generous.....-5

[laddo]

Sounds ugly!

[navypie]

Sounds ugly!

Just ignore me Laddo, you know what I'm like.

[Mark_Ross]

Grim

[navypie]

McDonnell.........9......hold up, first half rating only.....averages out at .....4.5.
Brindley...........bad today, really bad.......1.5
DKE...........never a left back in a million years, not sure if he played well or the others made him look good. MOTM....6
Rawlo........better in the 2nd....4
Long.........difficult to rate a kid in such a sh1te storm but one great block in the 1st half saved a certain goal.....5
Doyle........might have talked a good game recently.....2
Rose........I like Rose as a kid but as a midfield player, he's Sunday morning at best.....2
Enzio.......moving on........2
Robbo......one great run and shot ( I know, we had one you know ) but nothing else....3
Bertie.......not good at all......3
Dennis......put a real clever header in early doors to put Enzio through (who for some reason when in on goal , checked back ) but sacrificed at half time when Ardley decided to go for the jugular.....4

Ozzy......some nice touches.........4
Crawford......on an hiding to nothing........4

Ardley.......a generous.....-5

On reflection, I think I was a little unfair on Bill, but not the rest. The left winger they had was good but their left back Kitching was good, very good and Roberts offered him no protection whatsoever.

[the_anticlough]

McDonnell - 5 Good handling and kicking generally, but aren't keepers supposed to cover the flight of the ball when its on target?
Brindley - 6 Thought he had a solid game with a difficult match-up on that side.
Rawlinson 6 - Lead a good defensive performance, but if he's not heading the ball away he has to make sure somebody else is.
Long 5 - Looks the part and will make a player. But he's going to be error prone at this stage, and he was.
Kelly-Evans - 6 Finally, I understand why fans like him -a tough defender (that's not enough though)
Roberts - 4 Not his day. Couldn't get any change out of Kitching and Donaldson. Should have been moved elsewhere.
Doyle - 5 Battled but was less and less effective as the game went on.
Rose - 4 Not a midfielder at the professional level.
Boldewijn - 5 Needed to put in a real shift defensively and did so.
Wootton - 5 Frustrating day. Showed himself for the ball and ran the channels, but little came off for him. A 'Stead' kind of performance.
Dennis - 4 Hated his substitution, but he didn't help himself. He has to do more.

Subs
O'Brien - 5 Tempting to mark him down due to Ardley's stupid decision. Shouldn't, he was no worse than the other midfielders.
Osborne - 7 Looked sharp in the short time he was on
Crawford - 5 Didn't make an impression.

Ardley - 1
What an awful decision at Half-time. I was cursing him even before the goals. He'd gambled and it was working - the defenders and midfielders were doing what they're paid to do. We were in with a chance of stealing the 3pts. They were on top but it wasn't as if they were carving us up. The main problem was that the front 4 weren't imposing themselves (one sub would have to bring Osborne on for Dennis and move Roberts in just behind Wootton because he couldn't get any change out of his oppenents on the right).

Then Ardley basically announced that he didn't have faith in his back four, goes for 3 defensive midfielders, signals to his team that they're in trouble and to the opposition that we're scared. We were never in the game again, and didn't even have a striker on the bench to hit back. Ardley's scaredy-cat cautiousness could see us out of a play-off place yet.

[the_anticlough]

Another mark against our forward players was how often they kept getting caught offside. Really dozy.

Hartlepool's a tough place to visit and not just for opposing teams. I looked out of my window at 4:30 AM, bunch of people, mainly older women in the pouring rain and freezing cold, without any kind of coat, singing 'it's raining men'. More paralytic older women around when I went for a walk around the Headland (still raining) at 8:00AM

[Notsohumblepie]

[QUOTE=the_anticlough;39441461]Another mark against our forward players was how often they kept getting caught offside. Really dozy.

Hartlepool's a tough place to visit and not just for opposing teams. I looked out of my window at 4:30 AM, bunch of people, mainly older women in the pouring rain and freezing cold, without any kind of coat, singing 'it's raining men'. More paralytic older women around when I went for a walk around the Headland (still raining) at 8:00AM[/Q

Hartlepool sounds like Ritzy (The Palais) used to on " Grab a Granny Night" in the 1980's.