Words and Pictures from Pools opener at Carlisle

By Albatross
August 11 2002

Albatross gives us his view of yesterday's game at Carlisle, and warns against complacency. Included are a couple of Photos from Brunton Park.

Ritchie Humphreys Celebrates his goal.

Pools Players acknowledge the fans after the 3-1 victory.

We won, and won well, but in the cold light of morning let's take a look at what we can take from this game.

First of all, we have to bear in mind who we were playing. Carlisle haven't had a proper pre-season, and for at least three of the players it was their first game of any form in a Carlisle shirt. Whereas the only person making his first start for Pools was Sweeney - a player that has been in and around the squad for some time. We were a class above - but then we should have expected that to be the case. (For any Carlisle fans reading this - you will improve, and I expect a much tougher game in the return fixture.)

Any win away from home is welcome, but let's not kid ourselves: if we are to consider ourselves promotion candidates, then nothing other than a win was required today.

Plenty of positives from the game though. Tinks dominated in midfield and chipped in with two goals; Ritchie Humphreys looked like a man on a mission, and fully deserved his goal too. The defence generally looked solid. Sweeney did OK, but we did look more effective when Arnison came on and Clarke moved inside; Arnison looked very comfortable on the right of midfield and did a lot of good work going forward.

We played it around very well near their box, looking for the short passing moves as often as a cross, and were unlucky not to score from a delightful move that saw Watson put the ball just over. Other teams may prove to be tougher defensively, but we look like we have the keys to unlock them.

Westie and Lee had good games, Robinson did quite well, and Barron looked solid enough - though lacking in distribution. Williams didn't have too much to do, and while he almost lost it a couple of times did OK.

As seems usual with Pools, we did slack off once the game looked won though. OK we were 3-0 up, but even after Carlisle got their goal we looked too relaxed for my liking; a breakaway goal and we'd have been under pressure.

The important thing for Pools - and I'm sure CT is aware of this - is that we don't get carried away and think that we're going to win every game at a canter. Boston on Tuesday should provide a bit of a sterner test, and there's plenty of teams who will be thinking that they can turn Pools over: complacency is our enemy, we need to stay hungry and stay focussed.

Don't get me wrong - I thought we were good value for our win, and it's encouraging to see how well we played: and you can only beat what's but in front of you. I just think we need to show that sort of form consistently, and whether that's there or not is going to take us a few games to find out.

Howay the lads!