Views on the players

Before the game started, 2 school-aged mascots for the teams had to kick the ball to each other for 30 minutes or so. The announcer mentioned that the Pools mascot’s favourite Pools player is Jack Baldwin.

I echo his feelings. I felt really sad that I never got to see Baldwin play for Pools – apart from excerpts of his impressive performances in video highlights. When a player with as much obvious talent and potential as he has leaves, it’s possible to feel somewhat bereft.

However, look at who we DO still have playing for us. Where do I start?

Well, what a brilliant find young Bradley Walker is! He’s a big lad, isn’t he? His combination of height, physique & youth is not one usually associated with the deftness of foot that the lad clearly possesses. Does anyone else think that facially he looks like a more handsome version of Cristiano Ronaldo? Anyway, this is clearly another lad with a huge future ahead of him. His attitude and hard work suggest a well-balanced head on his young shoulders.

Scott Flinders generally had a good day at the office although at times in the first half particularly he struggled to judge the wind when kicking – a few of his kicks went straight through to the D&R goalkeeper. He made a few good solid saves & it’s certainly good to have him between the sticks.

We all know what Luke James can do. He seems to have a habit of creating chances & space for himself at strange angles when nothing seems to be ‘on’. A lot of running & effort today. He’s certainly good value for money. I forgot to mention in my ‘match comments’ that in the first half he was brought down while running on goal on the right wing by what appeared to be D&R’s last man – who escaped with a yellow card, rather than a red one.

Christian Burgess looked commanding at centre back. What a pairing he & Baldwin must have been! Is there ANY chance that we could sign him permanently? I was tremendously impressed with him.

Sam Collins stepped up to the breach today and apart from 1 or 2 slightly wayward passes put in a fine shift which minimised the impact of Baldwin’s departure.

After Solano & Howard, it seems that nobody wants to say a bad word about Marlon Harewood. My sense is that everybody is willing him on to do well for us. I recall that in an interview a week or two ago, Andy Monkhouse made positive comments about Harewood, adding something like ‘he just needs to get up to speed’. I really hope Harewood gets up to speed – and soon. He’s a likeable person with a good attitude and potentially a great physical presence up front. I say ‘potentially’ because today I didn’t think he achieved that. I felt that he rarely won anything in the air, and usually came off 2nd best in challenges – when he was there to make them, which his lack of speed hampered. Come on Marlon! Do whatever it takes to get back to your best. We could certainly do with it.

The 2 young full-backs both seemed to do a mostly sound, if unspectacular job. Holden picked up a booking for a needless clumsy challenge which gave a way a free-kick in a dangerous place but otherwise I thought he & Richards played their parts well enough.

Simon Walton had a bit of a mixed day. It wasn’t his best but it certainly wasn’t his worst either. He battled, sometimes won, sometimes lost. Some of his passes were good enough, others went astray. Perhaps we can be generous and attribute at least some of those to the wind?

For a long time I thought Luke Williams was rather anonymous in the game – but he certainly came into it a lot more in the second half, with some battling challenges and fine ball skills – and then that explosive and spectacular first goal. Here’s another player who is clearly too good for League Two.

I felt that Jonathan Franks did well when he came on as substitute for Harewood, combining pace and reasonably good ball skills to provide a lively outlet & threat down the right wing. He was better than I thought he would be and lived up to some of the good reports he’s received recently.

My man of the match though was Andy Monkhouse who put in a tireless performance, providing our main aerial presence in midfield and up-front as well as battling for everything, covering in defence, making some excellent passes, getting in some of our best shots on goal & putting in some good crosses too. His goal was a just dessert for a tremendous all-round display.