Official West Hartlepool RFC

Good to see that we have the lowest points against in the North 2 East.. Keep it up lads. B-]

just need to score a few more! :oP:oP

Hey Up

That might be because you've played three sides in the bottom four..............................come back on when you've had the Tigers and Middlesbrough, the stats may be a little different then.

Now thats just bitterness R&O..:_)

No.....just realism;-)

Time will tell won't it...

However at the moment, I as the devoted Westie I am, I shall sit here with a smug grin on my face, at the fact that Rovers have only scored 8 more points than we have conceded in 5 games. Oh and the 7 places in the league which seperate ourselves. B-];-)

There were a few messages on here before the season stressing the importance of a good start and 4 wins out of 5 and joint top of the table is definately a good start. All the rovers may be talking about how we wont get promoted... there's definately a long way to go but at least we've put ourselves in a great position after 5 matches.

Indeed Mikey you can only beat what is infront of you and as JimmyG says only time will tell.

I will also point out that you've only played away from home twice and one of those games against a club that looks a good bet for relegation. The other game you lost. Winning on the road is key to any promotion campaign.

away form is definately the key. we have always been confident giving anyone a game at Brinkburn but on the road has been a different matter. favourable fixtures have hopefully helped us gain confidence to take into the more difficult matches to come.
saturday will be an interesting one....

Good point. It's always nice to get a bit of confidence before a demanding fixture. I know Horden got poleaxed by Rochdale but it can be dangerous to draw too many conclusions from the opening games of the season when everyone is inevitably a bit raw.

I think Saturday will be a good indicator re your promotion ambitions.

Hey Up

I don't want to put a dampener on Monkey Boy's Monday evening but it's a bit early to start crowing about possible promotion.

This time last year, Rovers could have gone top had they beaten Penrith, on results to date at that time, a not unforseen possibility. We lost, started going down the league place by place and finished below West, who, at the time we were heading for top spot.....and possible promotion.........were second bottom and heading for relegation and civil war with the coaches on one side and players, fans and committee on the other until Coach Stubbs and PC Stabler appeared on the horizon.

Have you forgotten that already? Too......big......and.......boots are some of the words that come to mind. A first up win against Driffield, slow starters, and wins over three basement teams are not criteria to measure promotion against. It's a fair point, however, that you can only beat what is put in front of you.........................

Rochdale on Saturday will, as suggested by other correspondents, be a tester/taster.

HBL.....thanks for your concern................will you be there on Saturday?

West have benefitted from a decent fixture list. Too early for them (or anyone) to be talking promotion, but I think there are some clubs who would gladly swap points and places with them.

Who said we wanted promotion, even if we could get it?
In my view, we can't afford to go up.

why wouldn't we want promotion - every team should be striving for promotion or why are we competing?

The travelling distances aren't that much greater so the travel costs wouldn't go up that much!

"afford" doesn't just mean money.
We need to have the right squad in place to compete at a higher level.
Look what happened to Boro.
Anyway, we shouldn't even be discussing this!

'Ow Do

If Saggy says we can't mention the 'r' word then the 'p' word should also be off limits............................:-!:-!:-!

I don't think anybody, including me, is saying "look where we're at in the league, we're going to get promotion".

I thought promotion was a realistic goal at the start of the season and we've kept ourselves in the hunt after 5 matches. There are a lot of difficult games to come and things could change. However, my original point still stands: we've made a good start.