On the latest episode of the Poolie Podcast, Robbie Stelling dissects Hartlepool United's recent frustrations in front of goal.
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00:00Fair to say some frustrations amongst the fan base in terms of lack of wins and style
00:06of play in particular, and perhaps some of the subs as well at the weekend. How did you
00:09see the game overall and more broadly, Pulse's start of the season now that we're a good
00:15month in?
00:16Yeah, look, I mean, there are positives and there are negatives. I think you're quite
00:22right. You know, it kind of depends how you look at it, really. They are winless in four
00:26games at home, but equally they're unbeaten in four games at home. Only one defeat all
00:31season and that was at Woking when they played the majority of the game with 10 men. And
00:35even then they almost managed to snatch a point. But I think you hit the nail on the
00:41head there when you mentioned the frustration of the fans. I think that was palpable really
00:45for the first time this season on Saturday. The style of play is not everyone's cup of
00:52tea. I mean, I would say that the sort of admirable thing about Sung is he does have
00:58a clear plan and a clear way of playing. And obviously that's helped Pulse become a lot
01:04more solid defensively. They had some well-documented defensive issues. I think only kept four clean
01:08cheats in the entire National League campaign last season, conceded seven at Gateshead,
01:13conceded five at Oxford City, and already five clean cheats in their first seven games.
01:18And a couple of those clean cheats have been when they've only had 10 men on the field.
01:22So that's been a really big plus. I think another positive is midfield. Last season,
01:27Pulse were too easy to play against in midfield and they were too easy to overrun. Sung and
01:32Joe Monks have worked really hard to add in central midfield. And the new faces, Jack
01:38Hunter, Nathan Sharon, Greg Sloggett, have all made pretty positive starts. And Nicky
01:42Featherston continues to offer something despite the fact he turns 36 in two weeks.
01:48The frustration, of course, has been with the lack of goals. And I think it's made more
01:52frustrating really by the fact that Pulse have a lot of good attacking players. Manny
01:56Disarue scored 23 National League goals this last season, sorry, but he's cut a really
02:01frustrated figure so far this term, just one goal in seven matches and substituted for
02:08the second week running on Saturday. And that drew a smattering of boos from some home fans
02:13who were frustrated that Sal didn't opt to leave Manny Disarue and Gary Medin on the
02:18pitch together, especially given, you know, Pulse's recent lack of goals and the fact
02:23that they were at home. And I think supporters were wanting more of a statement of intent
02:27for them to go and try and win the game.