POOL UP

Hartlepool United will be lodged in many oldies memories as a club that survives relegation out of the Football League annually. Along with clubs like Accrington Stanley, Gateshead and Workington Town, Hartlepool may be considered a bit of a soft touch. Playing at Victoria Park, the club was founded in 1908, another great north-eastern side formed on coal, iron and resources from the sea. 

Brian Clough, Cyril Knowles and Len Ashurst are among famous names to have been associated with the team. Clough, of course, cut his managerial teeth here. H'Angus the Monkey, the club mascot was famously voted in as mayor at the town elections in 2002, and three years later the club had its greatest moment, missing promotion to the Championship just! Having joined the new Third Division North in 1921, the club has had many scrapes with re-election and since it is now set bottom of the Football League with only 12 points from 57 and a goal difference of 20.....life at the top looks threatened.

The land on which Hartlepool United's, Victoria Park, stands, was originally a limestone quarry owned by the North-eastern Railway Company. In 1886, the land was bought by West Hartlepool Rugby Football Club for the development of a new rugby ground. The ground was then named the Victoria Ground in celebration of Queen's Diamond Jubilee. In 1908, West Hartlepool R.F.C. went bust, leaving The Victoria Ground vacant and shortly afterwards, the ground was registered under the name of "The Hartlepools United Football Athletic Company Limited", a football team representing both the town of West Hartlepool and the original settlement of Old Hartlepool. This football team developed into Hartlepool United. From 1908 to 1910, Hartlepool United shared their ground with the amateurs of West Hartlepool until the club broke up, leaving Hartlepool United as the sole occupiers of the ground.

                                                                               Hartlepool United's nickname is the Monkey Hangers.

During the Napoleonic War, a French warship was found wrecked off the Hartlepool coast and when it was boarded by the locals, there were no Frenchmen alive apart from one individual that the locals assumed to be an French sailor. The individual was wearing a French naval uniform and didn't speak English, so he must have been a Frenchman. It was the ship's pet monkey, a mascot on the boat. The poor beast was taken ashore and because it didn't speak English, it couldn't defend itself and so was found guilty and hung as a French spy. The club  and town now have a team mascot called "H'Angus" and there are also various children's books, adult novels, songs and films with the Hartlepool monkey as the central theme. I wonder how that gets received in this delicate "decade". 

In 2016-17 Hartlepool dropped out of the Football League in 23rd place and played in the National League. The next season they came 15th in their League, then 16th, 12th and in 2020-1 4th, hence the Play Offs,

Hartlepool United returned to the English Football League yesterday, as they beat Torquay United 5-4 on penalties, in the National League Play off Final, despite Gulls goalkeeper Lucas Covolan scoring a stoppage-time equaliser. Luke Armstrong's first-half strike looked to have sealed promotion for Pools after Torquay's Kyle Cameron had headed goals disallowed in either half. Covolan headed in a 95th-minute cross to send the game into extra time. Torquay's Matt Buse missed a sudden-death penalty to see Pools go up. In a game that had everything it was fitting that it ended with a sudden-death shootout - all four opening penalties were missed with Covolan saving from Nicky Featherstone and Armstrong while Billy Waters and Danny Wright missed for the Gulls. Each side then scored their next four spot-kicks before substitute Buse's effort down the middle was parried on to the crossbar by Brad James. It means Hartlepool will join National League champions Sutton United in League Two next season after four years in non-league. Manager Dave Challinor took charge in October 2019 having been at Colwyn Bay and AFC Fylde with moderate success. Jeff Stelling of TV Football fame, studied at Salford University,  training to be a physiotherapist and in July 2012 graduated with a First Class Honours degree. Jeff Stelling, chief supporter of The Monkey Hangers, has a cat named after Challinor.

As Champions, Sutton (with 84 pts) were first clearly, so did not have to play off, but Torquay (2nd with 80 pts) and Stockport (3rd with 77 pts) were joined up with The Pool 4th (76 pts), Notts County (70 pts), Chesterfield (69 pts) and Bromley (69)pts in Play offs. 

Torquay beat Notts County 4-2, Hartlepool beat Stockport 1-0, Notts County beat Chesterfield 3-2 and Hartlepool beat Bromley 3-2.