Robbie Stelling on Hartlepool United's frustrations

On the latest episode of the Poolie Podcast, Robbie Stelling dissects Hartlepool United's recent frustrations in front of goal.

Transcript

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.