Hignett's Return - Crewe vs Hartlepool

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Firstly, hope that a good servant to our club, Craig Hignett, gets a good reception from the fans when he returns on Tuesday.

Team will probably be unchanged from Saturday's draw with Portsmouth. Hartlepool appear to have started the season well with a draw against Colchester and a good win down at Exeter in the league. With ourselves in decent form as well, I expect this to be a very entertaining game.

Going for us to win it 3-1 (Billy Paynter obviously scoring for Pools) which will hopefully set us up nicely for our European awayday at Newport on Saturday!

 

[lordofthepies]

I might go to this. It'll be my first Alex league game since April 2014.

It's not about me though. The Alex are unbeaten in 21 league games*.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

Does Crewe have decent rail connections ?

 

[MJA]

I might go to this. It'll be my first Alex league game since April 2014.

It's not about me though. The Alex are unbeaten in 21 league games*.

And there you have it. Couple of positive results and they all come crawling out of the woodwork

 

[lordofthepies]

And there you have it. Couple of positive results and they all come crawling out of the woodwork

I am a massive fair-weather supporter these days but I have got fairly good excuses for not going to games for the last couple of years...

 

[JJ1532]

Does Crewe have decent rail connections ?

Sorry, what?

 

[MJA]

Sorry, what?

I think you may have missed the comic value of Glasshalffullpools post

 

[MJA]

I am a massive fair-weather supporter these days but I have got fairly good excuses for not going to games for the last couple of years...

Was one of those excuses that Crewe have been utter horse shit?

 

[lordofthepies]

Was one of those excuses that Crewe have been utter horse shit?

Yes. A very significant one. But not the main one.

 

[PoolieTom]

Will be pleased with a point from tonights game personally. With two home games coming up, avoiding defeat will leave us in good stead going into them.

That said, with no new injury worries, we have plenty of options and will no doubt create a couple of chances. Hopefully we can stick one or two away.

Prediction :
1-1
Amond for us. A Toto mistake for you.

 

[Pooliekev]

Should be an entertaining game and in reality difficult to call but I'm blind with faith so I've gone 2-1 to Pools.

 

[JJ1532]

First real pressure game for the Alex. I can't imagine many fans expected anything from each of the 3 games we've played, but a defeat here would undo a fair bit of the positive work the team have built up so far. We haven't lost to Hartlepool at Gresty Road since 1982, wonder if that'll be extended tonight.

Would be fantastic if we could pinch a win by any means, but I'd probably take a draw

 

[The Alex]

Davis is a genius, we're going straight back up

 

[JJ1532]

Hmm, I'm assuming this was sent before our collapse.

Lots seems to have been improved, but there is still the Crewe of the last few years lurking away under the surface. Great to see us scoring goals, but can't be throwing away 3-1 leads at home to draw. That's poor. Been a big issue in the last 3 seasons and already we've let in an unnecessary consolation against Stevenage and have now let in 3 tonight. Be interesting to see who was at fault.

All in all though, 3 unbeaten is pretty good and we'd have all taken that in June and July. Just hope we can go and get a result at Newport now.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Absolutely strange game yet a fantastic one to watch for a neutral.

Billy Paynter missed an absolute sitter to start with. We had a few chances ourselves. Deservedly went 1-0 up through Dagnall's close range finish. Then Magnay the RB for Hartlepool scores a fantastic goal, Kiwomya could've done better with his marking but it was just one of those things no one was stopping. Kiwomya then redeemed himself with a low finish into the goal to put us 2-1 up at the break. After the break, Cooper then scores a cross into the goal for 3-1 and to be fair to us we kept attacking and almost made it 4.

Then Hartlepool's second goal was very fortuitous to say the least. I need to see it again but if I remember rightly Lowe put in a tackle when Pools were on the counter and because he touched the ball the ball ends up going to Amond who was standing in an offside position before the tackle only to obviously be played onside through Lowe's intervention. He couldn't believe his luck and slotted home under Garratt, again just one of those things, you couldn't attribute any blame to anyone for that, was a freak goal to concede.

Third goal was never a free kick, decent delivery goes in, flicked on and Kiwomya lost Magnay who headed home a third goal. We then battered down the door in the last 15 minutes and Ryan Lowe missed an absolute sitter when the whole ground thought he'd won it for us.

From our point of view some impressive individual performances, most notably Cooper, Kiwomya, Dagnall and Jones, People are slating the defence on social media again but you can hardly blame them for the first two goals. In fact, Turton, Bakayogo and Guthrie had good games. However Harry Davis looked like shitting his pants every time Hartlepool played a direct ball into our half, very unconvincing and kept letting the ball bounce. I'd drop him for Nugent at Newport in a heartbeat but it isn't happening.

Hartlepool weren't a bad side themselves despite them being second best in my view. I do think they played to keep it tight and on the counter initially but as the goals flew in, they mixed direct football with some neat passing moves of their own and were very well organised at the back. Blocking 15 of our shots says it all. They'll be ecstatic with a point after being 3-1 down and rightly so.

Yes we should've seen the win out, but I for one am happy there's no more of this sterile play for a 0-0 at home shite we've endured for the last three seasons. We're trying to attack teams to win games and 23 shots proved that tonight. On another day we'd have scored 6 or 7 if we were more clinical in front of goal but it wasn't to be!

Roll on Newport on Saturday!

 

[lordofthepies]

I'm pleased to see the positivity on here. A couple of lapses in concentration have cost us 2 points but we were mostly excellent last night. I can't remember the last time I went to Gresty Road and actually enjoyed myself. It was strange to come away after a result like that actually feeling quite pleased.

 

[PoolieTom]

We would've lost that game 5 or 6-1 last season, absolutely over the moon that we had enough about us to come back and sneak a draw, no matter how it happened.

 

[GTFCfish]

I'm pleased to see the positivity on here.

Guess you weren't reading this forum in pre season then........

 

[Pooliekev]

Good result for us I think.

This season so far, well, we had Colchester, newly relegated, away at Preston, a long journey to Exeter, no recovery and a draw at newly relegated Crewe.

Now two home games.

Watch us make a mess of that.