28/05/2005 7:36:18 pm

It's been a while. Oh yes, indeed it has. I have been working my ass off. I work at HMV, in case you didn't know. It's a hard job.

Looking back over the past five months, I've been quite lucky I guess. I've got a decent job, lots of money, and Hartlepool have reached the playoff final. Yes. THE FINAL. It's a bit of a miracle. We're one game away from the second tier of English football for the first time in our history. That's nice, indeed it is.

In other news, I have long hair and a Thumper toy doll. Oh, and my comments about CM5 on the consoles seem to be right, because they are in fact, not very good.

Star Wars Episode 3 is good. Go see it.

Here ends the entry. Good night.

18/10/2004 5:22:38 pm

Aren't music gigs great?

They're all full of sweaty teenagers, jumping up and down while you're trying to listen to the music. You bounce up once or twice, but immediately feel stupid and stop, hoping no-one saw you.

You sing along to every song. You know all the words, even though the singer seems to be making them up as he goes along (see: NOFX, Newcastle Uni, May 13th, 2004). But that's okay. Because it's THEIR songs. They can do what they want, and you'll still worship them.

And then, it's over. You walk into the cold air outside. It's around 11pm. You wander home, forgetting pretty much everything about the gig, except that it was utterly, fantastic.

This has been my experience of all three gigs so far this year. I have no doubt it'll happen in my next two.

Come December 31st, I'll have seen four of my top five bands this year.

Come February 8th, I'll have seen the top five, in the space of 13 months.

I can't wait.

Divit - January 9th, 2004, Trillians Newcasle.
Goldfinger - March 7th, 2004, Northumbria University
NOFX - May 13th, 2004 - Northumbria University
The Vandals - November 11th, 2004 - Newcastle Universtiy
Green Day - February 8th, Newcastle Metro Radio Arena.

Life is good.

25/08/2004 1:00:26 am

Poolies CM Classics - Part 2.

Hartlepool United v Arsenal
Saturday March 12th, 2011

FA Cup 6th Round.

Arsenal : Top of the Premier League, unbeaten and 27 points clear.
Hartlepool : Languishing in 20th place in Division One, struggling to put a run together.

In other words, a perfect cup tie.

Hartlepool had the first opening on 14 minutes, Igor Stepanovs hitting a long ball towards Marc Schuster, but the German midfielders' shot went high and wide. Hartlepool went close again on 22 minutes, but Schusters' powerful drive was brilliantly tipped over by Olafsson. From the save, Arsenal went up the other end and almost scored on the counter attack, with Jermaine Defoe putting the ball over the bar from the edge of the box.

26th minute, and Arsenal again went close, with Landon Donovan putting it over from just inside the penalty area. Hartlepool were defending quite well, considering the incredible mis-matching of the two teams.

Half time score - Hartlepool United 0 - 0 Arsenal

Second half kicks off, and Arsenal push, and push, and push, looking for an opening that would kill off Hartlepool and open the inevitable floodgates. Donovan, Defoe, Pennant and Crespo all go close, with the latter hitting the crossbar in the 64th minute after good play from Defoe.

Hartlepool had defended for the entire second half, so when the officials indicated 5 minutes of time to be added on (God knows where he got that from!), the Hartlepool fans and staff were understandably nervous. Arsenal hit the post again in stoppage time, and then Hartlepool had a counter attack. Primus hit the ball long towards Wilkshire, who headed infield to Ramon Calliste, midway inside the Arsenal half. Calliste turns, skips past Bonera and instantly hits the ball towards the run of Jermaine Easter...into the box! Clear! 95th minute! Surely not!

Time stood still...

The crowd erupt! The ball is in the back of the net, and Easter is wheeling away in celebration! The referee blows the whistle, and Hartlepool have achieved the near impossible. Victory over the runaway champions.

Hartlepool United 1 - Jermaine Easter (95)
Arsenal 0

13/08/2004 1:15:14 am

Ah, the season is back. Hopes, expectations, and having them all dashed by Christmas. You know the ones. And so it was I set off with my dad to Victoria Park for the opening game of the League One season, Hartlepool United v Bradford City. Driving down, we both commented on how hot it was. And my water bottle, recently stolen from his freezer, still wouldn't melt, so I couldn't drink anything anyway. Oh well, on to the action.

The first thing that happened was paying our way in. All the turnstiles on the easily accessible side of the ground were sold out. Disaster. So it meant walking round the stadium, over mud and grass, to the other side, where we found some. And had to walk to the other end of the stadium to sit down. Honestly, how useless. And the chairs were rubbish too. I'd never sat here, and it was just a row of chair bottoms with no backs set in concrete. Weird.

Anyway, onto the match. After the debacle of getting in, we'd missed the first few minutes, but I was assured by the man sitting next to me we hadn't missed much.

The first half was very even, with Bradford probably shading it. They had a few good opportunities, with Michael Symes heading just over on 4 minutes from a corner.

A few minutes after that, Adam Boyd got into the box and found space, but wasted his shot and hit it straight at keeper Ross Turnbull. Hartlepool again went close when they won a free kick 25 yards out, but Hugh Robertson's shot was well tipped over for a corner.

Those are the only chances I can remember from the first half. At half time, my dad sent me for chips. But the queue meant I missed the start of the second half. And I'm assured by the nice man again that Adam Boyd missed a sitter, although don't blame me if I'm wrong.

In the 55th minute, bloody Bradford took the lead. The ball was played from defence into the path of the running Dean Windass, who calmly slotted it past Provett in the Hartlepool goal to send the away fans into raptures of delight. They had almost filled the Rink End too, so kudos to them for making the trip.

From this point on, Hartlepool began to press more and more, and when Ross played the ball to Boyd, things looked interesting. The front-man turned, and layed it into the middle for the running Joel Porter to surely equalise! But no, he spooned it over the bar, and another chance had been missed.

New signing Kevin Betsy came on in the 70th minute. The ex-Barnsley striker knows his way round Victoria Park, having been the man who scored both goals for Barnsley in their 2-1 win on Boxing Day last year, putting an end to our 18 month unbeaten home run. However, it was last season's superman, Adam Boyd who equalised when, in the 75th minute, he was brought down in the box. He picked himself up and slotted the ball low to the keepers right, who went the wrong way. 1-1 and all was good again.

Fast forward 5 minutes, and Hartlepool have a free-kick 25 yards out. Hugh Robertson (who, I mentioned to my dad earlier, is the Scottish Roberto Carlos but actually scores), runs up and hits it. It looks harmless enough, and the keeper has it covered. But you know those wonderful things called divots? Well it hit one of those and left the keeper stranded. Boing! Into the net it went, and leaping to my feet, I yelled "Hurrah!"

Fast forward again to stoppage time. Bradford manage to get clear in the box. Time stands still. Jim Provett is on the floor! The Bradford player is on the 6 yard line with the ball and the whole goal to aim at! Surely he'll break Hartlepool hearts? Well he wouldn't have broken Darren Anderton's leg with this shot. It trickled into the arms of the keeper, and the chant of "You're going bust, you're going bust, you're going, Bradford's going bust" went up from the Hartlepool fans.

Full time, and Hartlepool had won 2-1. A thoroughly entertaining match, and the perfect start to the season.

And the chips were nice too.

02/08/2004 11:16:46 pm

NO NO NO NO NO

How utterly lame is CM5 going to be on Playstation 2? Xbox yes, fair enough. But PS2? The machine isn't powerful enough, have the capacity to run a decent-sized game, and is frankly, rubbish.

I'd love to see it work, but I don't understand how it will possibly be anything as good as the Xbox and PC versions.

Oh, and one more thing. Why not GameCube?

23/07/2004 12:35:02 am

My profile picture

Yas, my cat rules

23/07/2004 12:30:04 am

Okay so recently I've invested in 9 new GameCube games. For a total of around £75, give or take 20p. Which is quite a nice bargain if I may say so.

I'm currently into Ace Golf. It's rather, well. Ace. Hitting the ball is a case of pulling the c-stick back, then pushing it forwards quickly and in a straight line to determine the flight of the ball. I like this method a lot.

However, the cream of the crop was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. For £4.97! I mean, is that awesome or what. I've completed it already though.

Now the point of this article is to say that if you wait you can pick up the best games for the cheapest prices. Do you really need to own the game straight away? I would never have dreamed of paying full price for any of these games, but at no more than £9.99 a go, I'm happy to give them a place in my collection.

And after playing some of them, they deserve it.

15/07/2004 10:35:54 am

Ahhh. Not been here in a while. Had lots of work to do and just haven't had the energy to come online, to be honest.

Work is a bit tiring, especially working 10am - 10pm on 4 hours sleep. Stupid neighbours having a party till 3am doesnt help either. I survived though, and got 16 and a half hours sleep yesterday

Yeah, this is short and boring. I don't care

07/07/2004 11:48:34 pm

Poolies CM Classics - Part 1.

Okay, so I said I'd do something like this, so here we go. Classic saved games from my own games. Mostly Hartlepool United and England games. So here goes.

Hartlepool United v Sunderland
Wednesday December 23rd, 2015

The first meeting of the season between the two North-East neighbours was a cracking affair in front of a sell-out Victoria Park crowd.

Hartlepool United started the brighter of the two sides, and took the lead on 14 minutes when Ramon Calliste was upended in the box by Richard Walker, and the frontman picked himself up to slot the penalty home for 1-0 to Hartlepool. Sunderland then picked up the tempo, and were unlucky not to equalise after half an hour when Kristian Pederson hit the bar from 25 yards out.

Half time, and Hartlepool still led 1-0. Not much of a classic really, not yet.

In the second half, Hartlepool missed several good chances, with Cherno Samba being the biggest culprit. However, on 70 minutes, Samba didn't miss, after being set up from a cross by Calliste. Sunderland upped the tempo, and Hartlepool had more and more chances to score. 3-0 came on 78 minutes, after Calliste's volley was saved and Samba poked home the rebound. And just to round off the perfect afternoon, left winger Johnathon Forte cut into the middle of the pitch and rifled a 30 yarder into the top corner. 4-0 to Hartlepool, and a good afternoon all round.

Hartlepool United 4 - Calliste (pen 15), Samba (70, 78), Forte (82)
Sunderland 0

Coming soon - Hartlepool United v Sheffield Wednesday, FA Cup 5th Round Replay

06/07/2004 11:17:37 pm

Ah, don't you love days off work? Laying in bed till the mid-afternoon, nothing to worry about except sleep, games, and listening to music. And I have Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday off every single week.

Me and Sarah celebrate a year together on Sunday, so I'll buy her something soon. Not sure what though!