Hiya good folks of Hartlepool. Southend United fan here who thought you might like this. I hope you stay up by the way.


Stelling’s Hart is on his sleeve

JEFF STELLING believes Hartlepool beating the drop is not pie in the Sky.

Sky Sport’s football Saturday star is a lifelong Pools fan and admits his beloved club are perilously close to relegation from the Football League this season.

Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Bury left the Monkey Hangers eight points adrift of safety with just 14 games to go.

But Stelling is not giving up hope that League Two’s basement boys can pull off the great escape.

The 59-year-old said: “You have to believe they can do it.

“Many, many years ago in Hartlepool’s bleakest days when they were strapped for cash, they released a song to raise funds to save them. It was called ‘Never Say Die’ and that still has to be the attitude.

“If you have the right attitude, there is not much between the clubs at that level.

“Aaron Tshibola who is on loan from Reading, is a great example.

“He is a talented kid and when his initial loan ended during the transfer window a number of clubs came in for him.

“He told Reading he wanted to stay at Hartlepool because he wanted to help them survive. If we all have his attitude that would be fantastic.

“There are still enough points to play for. You win three or four games and you’re back in it. We are away to Carlisle on the final day of the season and if you asked would I take needing a win from that game to survive, I would say yes.”

Stelling, who spends his Saturdays following the club’s forunes via Sky’s videprinter, insists the warning signs were there last season when Pools stayed up by three points.

That was with Christian Burgess, Luke Williams and Luke James — who are all now playing at a higher level.

A managerial merry-go-round has not helped, with six in the last five years including current boss Ronnie Moore.

Add in an aborted takeover earlier this month and a dreadful start to the season which yielded just three wins in their first 24 league games, and Stelling feels Pools are at their lowest point in recent memory.

‘Relegation would be a calamity for us’ The County Durham anchorman said: “I remember 40-or-50 years ago when it was very bleak. But these are the bleakest times for a number of decades.

“We’ve lost our best players, we’ve had musical chairs with the managers and we’ve had backstage turmoil in terms of who owns the club.

“We have some decent players and we play some good stuff but that’s no good if it doesn’t get results. We’re up to our necks in it. The tide is rising and it is soon going to be above our noses.”

While ever-positive Stelling is not giving up, he knows relegation would be a disaster.

He draws on an example of another Sky Sports man, Wrexham fan Bryn Law, to explain just how painful going into non-league would be.

Stelling said: “A few years ago, Wrexham went down and Bryn was covering their last Football League game.

“He shed a tear and I thought ‘thank God it’s not me’. But this season it might well be me.

“Relegation would be a calamity for the people in the town and for the club.

“People in Hartlepool are no different to anywhere else and there is a limited amount of money around. They pick and choose what they can best spend it on and Conference football may not be at the top of their priorities.

“Income through the gates would fall off, sponsorship would fall off, quality of player would fall off.

“It wouldn’t change my support for them, that’s for sure. I would back them every which way I could.

“But it’s hard — you can see how many teams have gone down to non-league and have not come back.”

Even if Hartlepool do go down, Stelling would stick with the two-up, two-down Conference-to-League Two system in place now, instead of upping it to three.

Any more he fears could dilute the quality of the Football League and force some part-time clubs into turning pro against their will.

But he added: “People care just as much about Hartlepool just as much as any Liverpool or Man Utd supporter cares about their club.

“Believe me, if we go down, it won’t just be my heart that will be broken, it will thousands of broken hearts in the town.”

There won't be enough 'broken hearts' in the town, though, and therein lies a problem. Far too many people in the town couldn't give a shit about the club and only jumped on the bandwagon for Cardiff when it suited them. Add to that the petty, pathetic bitching and squabbling amongst our supporters and the apethetic nature of most towards IOR it's looking very bleak times indeed.

You won't find many true Pools fans "Apathetic" towards IO fucking R ......

One of the reasons why some people in the town don't appear to give a shit is because of the vindictive attitude of the club towards their customers.
It has been said that because the club can't get it's own way on the ground issue, they withdrew any financial input. Who is hurting most because of that?
Unless a fan is prepared to shell out on a season ticket he gets the alternative of paying up to £25 on the gate. Casual fans, visitors to the town, relatives paying a visit may fancy taking a match in but many are put off by the walk in price. I'm sure a good number of away supporters also balk at the price.
During the farcical takeover situation over the Christmas period, two home games were given cut price status.............result, more fans turned up providing much needed revenue.
I wonder what the owners, management and staff of Hartlepool United would be saying about the people who run the individual clubs they ACTUALLY support if the same was happening to THEIR club.
So, messrs Hodcroft, Green, Simpson et al just have a think about that. How would you react to YOUR club being run into the ground.
Maybe after you've had a good think about that scenario you might just be tempted to find a solution to the problems which are firmly planted on your doorsteps.
Hodcroft and the owners, especially, have no place to hide. They have proved they can make a success of the club and I give them credit for that but they also, because of a spat with the council, have withdrawn their financial support culminating in our current plight. For that they will never be forgiven.

Cutting admission to £10 a game till the end of the season is an absolute no brainer. Assuming Green was party to the idea when he was (apparently) part of TMH, why isn't he still advocating it now?

It's not just extra revenue, it's the chance of decent crowds becoming the 12th man that the team desperately needs at the minute.

Fucks sake IOR, give the fag end of the season a go at least!

I'm pretty certain Russ will be wanting to do that. Sadly its Ken that runs the club.

Do you think Ken has some fucker who runs his bath?

Ah yes, with his decades of business experience Ken knows all about supply and demand.

"$50 for a barrel of crude? Piss off, you're not getting my oil for less than $100 a barrel."