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Pools - that performance was just rubbish

Joel Porter - wasted
By Clarence Rode April 12 2008
Look, we don't wish to cause offence with Millwall fans because we know they are all very nice people, but beating them hasn't been difficult for many teams this season. However, Hartlepool have now done the impossible and made them look like a good side in an awful game at Victoria Park. As the old saying goes, Pools were lucky to get nothing.

Mind you, when they treat a player like Joel Porter as a target man, what can they expect?
Porter has a lot going for him - pace, skill, the ability to finish. But he is not a target man like Richard Barker.
So why did his team-mates play as if he was, hammering high balls in his general direction and expecting him to win in the air?
And a question for Danny Wilson - if Richie Humphreys has proved time after time this season that he is a better bet at left-back than Robbie Elliott, why was Elliott preferred to him on Saturday?
Wilson admitted his mistake by taking Elliott off at half-time, and said later that he had played him because he wanted to combat the way he expected Millwall to play.
Hang on a minute - Pools were at home, have scored more home goals than any other team in League One, Millwall are, err, sort of weak (sorry you Eastenders) and were desperate for points.
So why didn't we play to our strengths and attack them?
Any dummy might have guessed Millwall would play for a point, so what play a defensive player like Elliott when you have an attack-minded player like Humphreys?
Sorry, Danny, we don't get it.
We also don't get how it took more than an hour of a home game against a sort of, weakish team, (sorryagain) to win a corner. And, while we're on the subject, how does a professional footballer plant a corner in the side netting, or miss the big men in the middle and faim for the smallest player on the pitch at the far post?
And when a goalkeeper takes a goal-kick, how come he kicks it straight into touch? How can he miss something as big as a pitch?
We also don't get why Willie Boland's left foot has been nailed to the pitch to make him turn round in circles, and why do Pools persevere with some players who, let's face it, aren't going to make it at this level (no names, no pack drill. But you know who we mean).
Thank goodness teams like Bournemouth and Luton have had points taken off them. Thank goodness we are safe, because on this form, we'd be deep in the doo-doo.
If there were any more than three games left, the alarm bells would be ringing. In fact, looking ahead to next season, they already are.

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