.... We are now a division nearer to you next year! Rejoice, the horse n cart is heading your way!

Do you have any spare jumpers please as we will need better goalposts in the division above next year?

Glue, gas, meths, or all three?

Who Fucking cares

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Again the first thing this sad fucker does when his team get promoted in come on here. Just enjoy it. I'm sure you did the same last year so it appears you have failed to acquire any decent craic or a life in the last 12 months.

Well done to Darlo and all of the people who've worked to get them back to where they are, respect, ignoring this sad fucker.

Thanks PJ, I know how painful that was for you!

Not painful at all, Darlo fans are the same as us deep down and I honestly don't give a single fuck about who gets promoted from the Evostick League. It doesn't effect us does it?

It can't be that hard like if Martin Gray can mastermind promotions.

They've done incredibly well.

Does Martin Gray live in Hartlepool? I've seen him loads in town over the "Wilderness Years" for Darlo?

Not unless we've recently opened up a squirrel sanctuary at Summerhill...

Well done Darlo Now to get the buckets out to raise funds for nets. You have to have them in the Vanarama North.

I still genuinely don't have a clue what division Darlo are in or where they've been or where they even play

I didnt even know they were playing

How far can Darlo actually go in there new ground? I thought I'd read somewhere that the highest they could go with it as it is expected to be built is the conference north

Shacked up with my pals ex wife the kunt. Peterlee I think.

They are ground sharing with a rugby team next year and moving back to Darlo I believe. Not sure what that ground is like, though.

That's what I mean. Apparently they're taking the tin-shed end down from Feethams and rebuilding it. The new ground is just a field with a building at the minute

The Tin Shed is long gone (a few years now) Feethams is a housing estate. The cricket ground looks very different it's hard to remember a football ground being there now.

This is supposed to be what the ground will look like when it's redeveloped. It's at Blackwell Meadows and is currently the home of Darlington RFC.

I know a couple of genuine Loids who have been schlepping out to Bishop for home games and following the team away.

I count myself a proper Pools fan but it's probably more than I would have been prepared to do if we'd been demoted several divisions and were playing home matches at Wheatley Hill.

Well done them! Another dozen Pools-Darlo derbies (spread over the next 25 years and preferably in the Championship) is definitely on my bucket list.

The coach I was on for Morecambe went back past there and as of yet it was still a field, its going to have to be some impressively quick build to be ready for next season

The main supports for the tin shed are in storage and will be used to make a cover over a terrace at the new ground. The seated stands are modular and are quickly installed. The club house needs some alterations doing, a fence around the ground needs putting up, the pitch needs relaying and the car park needs extending. All doable before the end of august apparently, aiming to have the first home game back end of that month. The image above is actually the original plans which had to be altered due to a water main running across the pitch so the standing terrace is now at the other end of the ground. Very basic but it what we can afford at the moment.

They've done well to get this far, there are some well bankrolled teams in their divisions from now on though, might take a few more years to get past the next division.

Most of us though it would take a year or two to get out of this one, only the blindly optimistic expected promotion first time round. We equaled the record number of points in this league with the best points per game ratio seen since Burton won the league years ago. You might not like Gray but he demands the best from his players and they seem to respond to him. I hate the FA for what they did to us but it got us out of that stadium, got us a bunch of players who love playing for the club and aren't just motivated by money and its also given us 4 enjoyable seasons.

Not sure why Pools fans are getting stressed over a club we've never ever played before. Be 10 year minimum before whatever they are called this season get into the football league.

You can rule by fear at that level, not many proper contracts probably a lot of cash in hand going on, if you don't pull your weight (or even have one bad game) you get binned off and lose that extra income stream. After Gateshead he probably has the pick of the North in terms of non league players. It's a totally different ball game to professional football unfortunately, where someone like Martin Gray would be shown up in about three weeks.

To suggest footballers at that level aren't motivated by money and do it for the love of the game is delusional, just about every single one them is someone who has tried and failed to be a pro footballer, and given the opportunity again they would jump all over a trial at even a club like Pools like a fly around shit.

I am happy for people like you that Darlo are getting back to a level to deserve to be at but, I'm sorry I'm not having Martin Gray (every former football league club pretty much who has been relegated loads of steps has reformed and then got promoted loads) or that players at level do it purely for the love of game.

In footballing terms Darlo have had a cruise down the river... now they're getting near the sea and things will start to get a lot more challenging. Then we'll see what they're made of.

When you consider that some northern league clubs still pay higher wages than we do to some players, the ones that we have signed have done so because they want to challenge themselves to play at higher levels in front of decent crowds. If it was just money they were interested in they could easily sign for one of the big spending NL clubs and be back home in time for tea every week.
The likes of Cartman, Gaskell and Hardy were all offered big money (for this level) by Salford and yet chose us over them as they want to be a part of what is going on here. Gaskell lives 15 minutes from Salford so would be much better off financially by signing for them yet still chose us.

I agree. We thought this level would be hard to get out of but we did it first time. Conference North will be a tough nut though. I'll be happy with an outside chance of the play offs.

I doubt any 'big spending' northern league clubs have a wage bill even approaching yours. Although I've noticed South Shields crowds and results so maybe them. Players play ar different clubs for a variety of reasons but money is always a factor whatever level you play at were money is involved. To suggest that non league players all play for the love of the game is a tired cliche. Money is factor but so is ambition and wanting to play at the highest level possible. Scott Fenwick quit a better payed job to sign for us a professional is he now automatically in it for money and loves the game less? I'd imagine lads in League Two or One aren't that different from ones playing in the Evostick League in terms of motivation. They all want to play for the best team at the best level possible for the most money they can get for it.

Temporary seating doesn't count towards ground capacity. What we will have is acceptable for Conference North. For the next level it will need more permenant seats and more turnstiles.
The rugby club don't have that many home games from what I understand, a dozen or so. The problem with some grounds is down to the light that gets to the pitch, something that won't be a problem with the size of the stands we will have and the way the wind blows down there it will dry the pitch quicker.
Style of play? We play different styles varying on formation but generally its a case of get it to the strikers and play from there. However we have players like Turnbull and Portas who like to get the ball down and play a bit in the middle. Our 3rd goal at Whitby showed that we are more than capable of some quick incisive passing but thats not possible on a lot of pitches at these levels.
Should we get to the next level it will take more investment from the fans to keep the club in with a chance of progressing. Either that or accept outside investment.

Any comment on where people are going to park at Blackwell Meadows? When you sold the playoff tickets from there last season it caused a 3 hour traffic jam and people were abandoning the cars to get the tickets. Seems to me that you are building a ground to then build another one once/if you get into the conference to suggest that you could ever host league matches at that stadium is laughable. They stands at Heritage Park aren't that big or long but the pitch has been a bog all season so don't think that can be judged until its been used for a season.

I would of thought if we played 1883 it would feel like the old derby even though it is a new club.

Was 25 bar to get in and you didn't get a ticket nice work if you can get it.

I wasn't going to comment on this thread but as HP has been drawn into it then.....

Mr Unruly, HP does have a drainage problem, its built next to a flood plain, also there have been issues with the initial instillation of said drains. This season and the last 4? it hasn't helped with 2 teams playing on the pitch, the drainage is being looked at again during the summer. Also the weather hasn't helped!

Chip, as per your comments about the Withdean and how Brighton got away with it, it's probably due to changes in ground Regs. New grounds have to follow the green guide. For instance HP has a capacity of 2004, where'as (and I'm sure the lodgers would agree) could safely hold twice as many. Brighton were probably/possibly given leeway as it was short term with the Amex Stadium on the horizon.
Temporary seats don't count towards ground grading, again HP as an example, the temp seating behind the goal at the Swimming Pool end that the Lodgers installed, can't and hasn't affected the capacity.

This is all my understanding and cannot be taken as fact.

It was hardly short term they must have been at Withdean for about 15 years, and when the first moved in the new stadium wasn't on the horizon, I don't think it was certain that it was even going to be built.

As the bishop has said, the regulations have changed.
A lot has to do with the people who do the assessment. Bishops ground is a great facility despite the pitch problems and yet some grounds in the same division have the same, if not bigger capacities but the grounds are awful.

Fair play to the 1,000 + or whatever the number is that has turned up week after week since the liquidation.

If the same happened to pools and we were forced to play at say, seaham every week, would we have similar numbers. Hopefully we'll never have to find out.

That ground looks ace with the rugby field markings. Shame to spoil it. What rugby club is it anyway? Not the one who took over the white elephant?