He started out at hometown club Newcastle (pictured bottom right with Gazza), making a handful of appearances for the Toon before a season spell at Swansea. He came to Pools in the late 80s, with his blonde popstar hair do and settled in superbly. In 1989/90 there was a taste of things to come, bagging 18 goals. The next season under the guidance of legendary chief Cyril Knowles, Pools won promotion for the first time since the 1960s, with 'Skull' Allon hitting 28 goals, topping up his goals tally and his bank account - The Pools squad backed promotion at 45-1 in Willie Hills in summer 1990, and celebrated promotion twelve months later with £200 notes for the post season jaunt to Magaluff.
Money came in from Chelsea - £250k to be precise - and he scored two in two in his first appearances in 91/92. However he seemed to fall in with a bad crowd. His flatmate was none other than Vinnie Jones, he became chums with Dennis Wise, and an ex-Geordie team mate was also making his way in the capital - Paul Gascoigne. Lager-fuelled mayhem allegedly took place. After 18 games for the Blues and a lack of goals, and with an extra £100k due to Pools when he played 20 matches, so Chels flogged him to London neighbours Brentford for a club record fee of £275k - where he had a more successful goalscoring record in two years .
Pools could probably have felt short changed after that, but following spells at Port Vale and Lincoln, Allon returned to Hartlepool in 1995 for nowt. The goals came but not as plentiful as before, hitting 22 in three seasons. However he'll always be best remembered for an incident in 1997 when he raised his status from cult hero, to cult legend. With Pools facing the drop (again) towards the end of the season, they found themselves one-nil down away at Darlo. Pools managed to get an equaliser through Man City loanee (and Poolie born and bread) Michael Brown, but desperately sought the three points for safety. With ten minutes remaining Allon was dispatched from the bench but still nothing. Deep into injury time a corner boucned across the area, evading everyone bar Joseph Ball Allon. Somehow having fallen on his arse he managed to scissor kick it into Darlo's net, in front of the Tin Shed (below). Silence in Feethams except mayhem in amongst the away support.
Popular at the Bridge despite his relatively poor goal return, last minute equaliser on his debut, he then hurdled the hordings and ran into the shed. Nice one.
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