......... we mustn't forget if we pull it off, there's still work to be done. I 'd hate it if in the post survivsl 'euphoria' things became a bit blurred and we went into groundhog day mode.

For a start lets hope Moore is allowed to pick the released list and decide who gets new contracts etc instead of some fuckwit.

My worry is we'll carry on being handcuffed to a corpse.

Ronnie comes across as the type of bloke that if he doesn't get to decide who stays or goes he would just tell the club to piss off and leave.

Let's also still remember a supporters trust is essential. Who knows what the future holds, ior want to sell. So let's make sure we have a voice


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Agree, trouble is do they want to sell...?
My dread is we just go treading water and abdolutely sod all happens. I don't want these 'great escapes' to be regarded as some sort of achievement, this has been our measure of success for years, avoiding oblivion, when it's no success at all.
Thanks Ronnie if we do it and even if we don't, but don't let the drama of our revival hide the abject failure of others that led to it in the first place, escaping relegation is not a measure of success, we need to be planning for the future.

The million dollar question is do they really want to sell or do they want to carry on abusing lur loyalty and taking the piss.
Its going to be an interesting summer of speculation and rumours because literally anything could happen with LAUREL n HARDY still at the helm.

I'm just hoping we stay up and find new owners thats the perfect DOUBLE for me!

Threads like this that relentlessly tie the football team's fight to escape relegation with the ownership issue are getting a bit old, don't you think?

It's a given that 95% of the people who post on here want to see a Supporters Trust set up and would also be delighted to see IOR riding off into the sunset after a change of ownership.

The fight goes on, next weekend could be tough and the odds are still on it all going down to the wire. Hard as it is for some people to remember, the sort of gutsy displays that the current First 11 are putting on is the very thing fans turn up hoping to see week in week out, year in year out. OK, it's a relegation battle, but it's fucking enthralling one and if Ronnie Moore's Blue and White Army do manage the great escape the joy will be immense.

When the party's over, I doubt that there'll be too many Pools fans ready to confuse hanging on to League status by the seat of 11 pairs of pants with 'success.'

Agree it's not something you'd ever wish for, but I'm as gripped by this one as I was in season 70-71 when I started to really follow Pools.

Bottom at the beginning of March, Pools went on a run and by April Fools Day there were over 6,000 in to watch us play Scunthorpe. We won that one too, finished the season 18th, 2 places out of the re-election zone. Everyone had been predicting that was the year Pools were going out of the League but poor Barrow got voted out instead - and they'd finished third bottom!

Hard luck for you if the thrill has gone.

There's perceived difference between turning things round and surging to safety or sliding down the league Chris Turner style to within goal difference of relegation. One's a relegation fight while the other's a relegation scare, but the only real difference is that in one case you got the wins in early.
But as I said a while ago. I much prefer a Danny Wilson style flat mid-table season to either.

No thrill gone for me, but constant failure made us get excited over avoiding oblivion and if not for re-election we'd be long gone many years ago. We were like the man who fell overboard and got excited by being rescued....word of advice, don't fall overboard repearedly or you'll drown eventually.
The ultimate irony with Pools has been shit crowds swelled by the end of season struggle for survival.... if those who turned up for the life and death struggle had been there from the outset, maybe there would have been no life and death struggle.....there's the pity.The fans got excited over the end of season struggle because thst's all there was to get excited over.

3,000 or so season ticket holders turned up week after week when the performances were truly dire, so I don't think we've suffered from shit crowds at all. As Ronnie Moore says, the fans have been great.

The bad old days of re-election near misses are a long time ago too - Pools have been on the up more often than down for most of the last 20 years. Coming down from League One I can live with - it's the prospect of going out of the League altogether (for the first time in the club's history) that is galvanizing.

I think people are excited now at the prospect that this season can be a turning point after a dismal few years - on the pitch and then off it.

It is absolutely crucial that the manager remains, is able to select his retained list and is perhaps even encouraged to bring in new blood on permanent contracts, he has the contacts, experience and ability to make our whole experience better.

Absolutely spot on Snowy. We arent guaranteed safety by a lot chalk yet, but some are already talking about promotion next season....other places.

If Pools fans allow the chairman and smithers to think they have succeeded if we survive then they will think....same again next season.

Those two cartoon business men have put pools in this place, and they need to be reminded constantly of it. All summer.

I agree with worries about our survival. It'll go to the wire I reckon.

I suspect some people are wiping the memory of this horrendous season out of their minds along with the previous seasons on the strength of our providential run of form.
We really are celebrating survival...it's a sort of Dunkirk effect...very good, but you don't win wars by surviving by the skin of your teeth.
What we need to address is how eneed up in this situation in the first place and not getting excited over a distraction.

My worry with the whole Trust journey has been one of concern that those who can't see further than the end of their nose roll out the dogma of a few wins and the world is full of fairy tales and cuddly, fluffy bunny rabbits.

The reality is that we are currently third bottom of the football league with a holding company who are actively looking to get out.

I am hopeful of survival as much as anyone but are we really any clearer on the future? IOR 'looking for investors' . TMH, that lot from Sheffield, who's next? Ken Hodcroft and IOR have been a good thing overall but its clear that their time has gone. After 17 years I dare say that my time would have gone too so I'm not going to be too critical. If thats no longer the case then I'm open to discussion. If IOR are staying then the trust can work with them by way of community projects and investments.

For me the way forward, and this is a personal view not an official trust policy, we should have a co-operative of people who care deep down in their bellies. A mixture of local businesses, people with business, legal and financial skills running the club if and when IOR choose to go. The decision making should be based on a lot of stakeholders not a single demigod. See Blackpool for evidence.

I think we, as a town, could raise the money to buy out IOR. A community share issue which the whole town and surrounding areas could buy into. It's worked at Exeter, Wycombe, York etc, so why not at Hartlepool?

I'm not looking to run it either but some people had to step forward and before we did it was just whispers in the wind. Now its tangible and after 8th April it will be a real community entity. A Community Benefit society legally in which each and every one of us can buy a single share.

Thats my view and it has nothing to do with either the Bunker or ego.

Agreed

Look no further than FC UNITED OF MANCHESTER of the evo stick nortern premier league as proof that fans owned can work.
There fans have raised over £2 million through buying shares in the club.The money going towards there new ground which is due to open shortly theres a video of it on you tube.
If we are to go down the fans owned route then I would reckon we could make it work the towns easily big enough to get enough people on board.

I cant make the meeting next week through work but will be reading the bunker to see how it went.

I think you'll find that staying in the Football League is a bit more than a "distraction" to 99% of Pools fans and the recent run of form isn't "providential" - it's down to the players responding to a good manager and the atmosphere the fans are generating. Time will tell whether it's enough to stave off what looked inevitable a month ago.

Preserving League status would make a huge difference to HUST too. Superficially it might look easier for the Trust to achieve its ambitions (up to and including Mr I's preference) if the club dropped out of the League and IOR walked away, but that could easily lead to a Darlo scenario. In my heart of hearts I'm not sure I'm up for HUFC 2016 Ltd fulfilling Evostick League fixtures in Billingham. There'd be a lot more enthusiasm in and around the town for a community share issue if Pools remain a going concern playing League football.

Tell me where anyone doesn't want Pools to stay in the league, that's taken as fact.
As for the comments about the trust I won't dignify it with a reply.

Well thank God for that!

Oh dear.