Healthful Hartlepool

 

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Can you guess which ground these vintage cans are from?

2019/2020 - The Season That Wasn't

News yesterday that the National League have cancelled their remaining fixtures, meaning Hartlepool's season has been cut short and and they face a future of uncertainty.

With all fixtures/results looking increasingly like they'll be null and void, 2019/2020 will be the season that never was. Got me thinking about the few games I've attended this season, how positivity had returned to our club (despite league ranking) and how things appeared to be improving (typically with a now defunct late dash for the playoffs).

First up was a nice sunny friendly at Billingham Town. Was ridiculously early, 2nd July, a good three weeks before the kids even finished school for the summer. They come along for the ride, me pushing it somewhat as their first ever away day. A really good attendance as Poolies came to view the new signings and Hartlepool, wearing a summery bright yellow shirt, were too good for Billy, running out 4-0 winners.

Next up was home to Wrexham in August. The sun was belting down once again, a perfect bank holiday Monday. First time I can ever recall donning shorts to Pools - even in August you usually have to wrap up warm at the Vic. The lads didn't fancy this, as last season they saw the same fixture and were a bit unnerved at the handbags out on Clarence Road afterwards.
A good end-to-end game and an international feel to the atmosphere (always a fair few England chants at these), Pools ran out deserved 4-2 winners.

From the summer sun to the dark of winter, as Stockport came to town in January. Two clubs chasing playoff positions should have been an even encounter, however County never got going and Pools played some of the best stuff I've seen for years. Cheered on by a raucous crowd they got a comfortable 2-0 victory.

Had a couple of further home ties (and also Hampden Park tickets for a Euro 2020 fixture) planned, however COVID reared its ugly head in the UK and 2020 fixtures frozen and cancelled. All that positivity and good feeling around the club and it's all been for nothing. What a waste of time.

Spennymoor Town vs Hartlepool United (again)

Fast becoming an annual pre season fixture between these two sides, it was up to Brewery Field yet again to see how Pools new signings (all ten of them) are gelling against one of the regions best non league clubs.

Suns out. A fiver in. Beer in hand on the touch line. A good fair game. I'm thinking this is what football should be about, enjoyable and inexpensive, in a ramshackle ground full of character, a million miles (and pounds) away from the plush all-seaters at the top of the pyramid.

Pools are playing a strong side and Spenny realise fairly early on that they're in for an uncomfortable afternoon and resort to tough late challenges. Pools left winger cops a fair few kicks but United remain unflustered by shifting attention to the right, and this tactic pays dividends when a floating ball in from the RHS is met by last seasons top scorer Scotty Fenwick precision head. One nil.

Spenny's unit of a goalkeeper, a typical beefy non league custodian, makes a couple of excellent saves, one from a cross-come shot from the right wing and a solid free kick into the top corner. Pools should be a few up but the whistle blows for HT, leading to another age old tradition lost from the modern game - fans changing ends. We leave the Football League standard covered terrace behind the goal and perch on the more modest pavement and black and white painted fence surroundings behind the other.

Time for a thumb through the programme. The editor must be a Poolie on the quiet as an extensive proportion of the well made two quid issue is devoted to Hartlepool - a full sixteen pages devoted to Pools including an expansive club history and plenty detail on the pen pics. And then there's a further two pages on Pools programmes from yesteryears. Nice.

It's blustery in the second half and Pools are kicking up hill on the lopsided pitch so the fluidity of the movement is halted. Plus there's been a full roster change with all starting eleven subbed after 45 mins. The second string huff and puff but not as strongly as the cross field gusts, so have to rely on half chances. Trialist Fergus Bell takes on of these to extend Pools lead.

With the game all but won Pools compete at a leisurely pace, continuing to attack down the right hand side with decent success. Young hopeful Connor Smith takes one chance coming in from said side and coolly slots into the corner. Towards the end new signing Jake Carroll, a Huddersfield Town left back, cuts in and places one into the net. Four nil.

A resounding pre-season success for Pools, the same result as the previous visit and I'm kicking myself for not backing it (16/1 on Bet365). However a check of the other 5pm finishes see that Preston, Rotherham, Wigan and Bournemouth all won, meaning my daft pre-season two quid fourfold has landed me twenty quid. I love coming to Spennymoor.

Pick Gers

My pal Cam is a die hard Gers fan. Never had him down as a photographer but loved these pics he snapped at recent Rangers away games at QotS and Cowdenbeath. Sums up football from yesteryear, travelling hoardes, standing room only and crumbling stadia - football as it should be.

Spennymoor Town vs. Hartlepool United

A glorious crystal clear late summers evening. Perfect conditions for taking in the lopsided surroundings at Brewery Field, as Spennymoor Town (formerly Spennymoor United - #AMF) took on Pools youth/reserve team. Four quid in, could sup a pint on the touchline, the first whiff of burgers and onions for months, warm sun and four one winners. If only all games were like this...

York City Away

Finally York City as a proper fixture, not some meaningless kick around in July. And 1699 other Poolies felt the same as nearly two thousand Pools fans snapped up tickets for Yorks partisan away end.

There's 365 pubs in York, one for everyday of the year, but there's only one that matters to me and me pals. The Stone Roses bar. Blogged about it before, it's my personal favourite drinking hole by the Ouse. However it loses a certain charm on a matchday. Not from the boisterous drinked up Poolies, don't mind that. Been there, done that. No, but from the over zealous bar staff who called for quiet and turned anyone away they didn't like the look of. In that respect, we were lucky to get in. The polis were in and out like the place was Sun Hill, eyeing up anyone and everyone who wasnt wearing a STAFF tee, and removing anyone who dared to sneeze. Still a few pints supped and a few boss tunes listened to, nice to get my biannual fix of this boozer.

Too quick though it was time for the match. I was anticipating this game highly, it was like Christmas eve, and hadn't felt this excited for a Hartlepool match for a long time. Although I think more of it was to do with the large away following, not the promise of good free flowing football. And with the excitement of Christmas Eve...

Christmas Day turned out to be an utter let down as usual. The open terrace packed with bodies was a fine sight, but unfortunately the absence of a roof meant no reverberations of sound from the singers leading to a disappointing quiet bar a few hundred. I'd also put that down to the torrential rain and the fact we were watching Hartlepool United. No wonder we were subdued.

The game may as well have been the meaningless friendly (at least we'd have had the weather) as both sides were crap. Pools started with James Poole and Steve Howard up front, both with a measily handful of goals between them last season, and never looked like scoring. No shots on target. But then York didn't have any either. Two hopelessly toothless teams playing out a stalemate in England's basement division. £17 pounds sounds a lot when you put it like that.

The full time whistle eased the pain but not the rain. Nil nil. Time to check the other scores. A twenty pound free bet seven line accumulator failed to respond due to one result. Had Wycombe won £2.5k would have been in my pocket, but alas no. So had to scrape around in my pocket for enough change for more petrol in the tank, point the car north towards the north and the purple/black clouds gathering there...

Watching Hartlepool United away. Joyous.

Lock, Stock and Four Hungover Northerners

Couple of tourist snaps from an away weekend in the smoke with a few Sunderland lads in 2008. We saw out a nil-nil draw with Fulham and crashed at a youth hostel-come-nightclub in London Bridge. Early Sunday morning it was round the corner to Borough market to take a few pics at the Lock, Stock & Two smoking barrels location.