...as we now appear to be languishing in the doldrums in football terms .... going nowhere. For most of my time watching Pools, it has been a triumph of hope and expectation over pure common sense, but they were my hometown club and there was no other team for me, through the bad times and the.............. slightly less bad times.

Then along comes IOR and this is where it gets interesting... we have security, we have organisation, no more sitting at the end of a match on the last day of the season hoping we get re-elected and also hoping this isn't my last league match... remember, no one came back then from non league obscurity.

The past ten years have spoilt us in relative terms, the relegation apart, we've alwayd had something going for us at the end of the campaign...a success of sorts, but we were always the also rans and even the two promotions were both in deflating circumstances, that seemed to cheat us at the last minute of that first piece of glory. You could say it's been a decade of falling at the last hurdle and maybe that's the problem, maybe people really are starting to think that Pools are just destined to be like that .... and the longer it goes on, the more the club stagnates from a support point of view, and we do actually need those new fans/floating supporters. I get the feeling that this season, the promotion one apart, could end up as the most banal of the lot even if we stay in lower mid table.

is this your first theory, called my theory number one?

The bad old days couldn't be glorified, you just survived on a diet of Bovril and fingernails.....it was 'educational', but there was no glory.......

It's the old supporters that stayed with pool through thick and thin times

I know, I was there.........but 'glory' and it's companion 'success' were strangers to us. Gallows humour comes to mind.

the problem with this theory is the new fans have been here for the most sucsessfull 10 years in the clubs history what happens if pools did slip back into the bad old days,how many of the new fans you included would still support the club

I suspect not many, but we live in hope ...but I'll still turn up, God knows why, I suppose it's in the blood

That's just plain daft that Fatty.

No-one wants to back where we were, they just bring it up when moaning old gets start on about how crap we are now. 'Cos we aren't. Haven't been for ages. We weren't even crap under scotty, he just insisted that we played crap.

The whole point is, when you start chinning on about stuff now, it smacks of not knowing you're born. All the downside now is about small details, like a left back, a striker, people who can't get in the team. Ten years ago or more, the whole team was shite.

Coz therell be no more kids born IN Hartlepool

THAT IS THE BEST, MOST PRECISE POST ON THE CURRENT 'UNREST' THAT I HAVE READ TO DATE.

EXCELLENT STUFF MR KEV.

congratulations kev i think you have just brought a well worded end to this topic

Even if that does prove to be true, those kids being born in North Tees or the New super Wynyard Hospital, if being born to Poolie parents, being brought up in Hartlepool (or nearby ), will still be Poolies. My brood will always be Poolies despite being born in North Tees and being educated and living in Billingham.

Ten years ago OR MORE. The renaissance started ten years ago, WITH players such as you have mentioned. The previous history of the club is well written. Two promotions in ninety years hardly qualifies for a seat at the glory table does it??

We need as many fans as we can get old or new. I am of the opinion and have been for a long time that were we are now is as far as it goes. Only a sugar daddy could change that. 2008 our centenary, yet in 100 years we have never won a title,won at a top division ground,got past 4th round of FA and League cups and spent a season in championship/old second division.

Only Rochdale ican be said to have been a less successful current league club.

i wasnt born or brought up in hartlepool, my lad wasnt either, he was 7 when we moved here, and his eldest brother, his son, at 2 was singing theirs only one united & they call them hartlepool at nursery in north yorkshire, and has been to 2 games already, and his stepson only ever wears pools shirts all the time in northallerton, they are poolies....

My grandaughter, has her first poolie top/bib, at 3months old, although born in newcastle.....although her dad says shes a geordie, i bet her first match is at pools.........

Well maybe 'the whole team was shite' was a bit harsh and of course there's been occasional great players through the decades.

But they've usually shone out like a diamond in a cow pat.

Happily now this isn't the case and we've got competence and some brilliance in almost every position. It surely says something that no-one has absolutely hammered us so far this season and the four worst defeats are by two clear goals. No-one's embarrassed us.

When we were beaten by Morecambe and Hereford, I for one was embarrassed

fair comments regarding team selection and style of play, but if Porter and Monkhouse are injured, (and Gawd help us Brown if he got injured), then DW's limited to what he can pick.If all those players are available, then he HAS to pick them, because they are our best players. Barker doesn't have the ability of Porter, Moore, Brown, Monkhouse, or even MacKay,so in theory there should be no place in the starting XI for him - sad but true, as I like to see flair players given the chance to shine and entertain us as fans (i.e. the Crewe and Tranmere games).

To quote Lord Melchett 'If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through', won't it Dibble?