Being a Pools supporter for the past 25 years i used to hate the fact i worked most Saturdays and couldnt get to as many games as I wanted to. Now I find it a bit of a blessing after the rubbish which has been served up this season. My last game was the Stevenage match and that will be it for me this season, a combination of cost and disillusion has done me in.

But whats different this time? Lets face it Pools have never had it easy, countless re-elections, the latter stages of the Gibson era and the late 90s spring to mind. The passion and fight just seem to have disappeared and we all appear resigned to our fate of oblivion. In my time as a Pools fans I have witnessed the support at Brammall Lane, even now listening to the End of 'Up and away' can bring a tear to my eye. Watched Houchen and Tait essentially be run out of town by the fans and the last minute escape at Darlo and in 99 by the skin of our teeth.

Each and every time the fans drove this and made things happen and this is what is required now and why the trust needs to work. It just saddens me that as a majority we appear to be accepting our fate without a whiff of protest aimed towards those who are killing our club. We are actually heading towards oblivion and I cant believe the majority of our fans are just accepting this. We have fans who are more concerned with planning the fancy dress for the last day of the season rather than challenging the muppets who are killing our club.

The part that most saddens me about this season is it is the first year my seven year old has come to the games with me and is genuinely becoming a fan. Then he has to witness the debacle of relegation and watching Marlon try to play football which is like watching somebody with the bends breakdancing. Only thing I can do is show him Joel Porter, Boydy etc on Youtube to prove that once we were kings.

Yes the no protest part is clearly the saddest part of our demise.
As a few bunkerites have mentioned before if this shit was happening 20/25 years ago there would be hell on.

What gets me is the attitude of some of our supporters who jump on you at the slightest suggestion that IOR, Hodcroft and Green are to blame and that the "so called Trust" can never work. Apparently we aren't proper supporters by refusing to blindly give them anymore money. Still, fancy dress, trending on Twitter and having a good day out at Carlisle is all that matters.


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What's the difference though? Has our fan base changed? Has the recent success changed us? Have the fan base from 20-25 years ago just got older and have different priorities now?

The lack of discontent at the Stevenage game was alarming but apart from a few grumblings that was it. The owners and players are taking us out the league but its just accepted now

The time to protest was when the lack of investment caused firstly our near and then our eventual relegation from league 1, what is happening now is inevitable and protest (apart for making you feel slightly better) is futile.

Actions are what is needed, not to stop this or possibly further relegations but to save the very identity of the club from those who are doing it harm. Organise and then chase the shower of shit responsible out of town.

What are we going to protest though?
IOR OUT? They want out anyway.
IOR INVEST? That's not likely.

The best thing to be doing is getting behind the HUST, we are past the point of protesting now. It's not going to change a thing.

Go back 20-25 year ago & some of us were probably in our late teens / early 20's and knew back then the whole protest thing with banners, standing outside club offices got TV coverage. I was watching the whole Gibson era farce on youtube not long ago and the special report TTTV did on the the club's dire financial situation.

I also remember that 3-2 defeat to Brighton in Nov 96 and around a couple of hundred if that left in the Town End come full time. Back then, we voted with our feet and crowds of 1600 tops were often the norm unless it was derby day.

We know now IOR are happy to go and don't want to invest so protesting wouldn't be worth it. I agree, HUST looks the way forward for our club.

Now is not the time to be bothering with a protest now is the time to stand behind the team and make the players on the pitch hear how much we love our club and want them to stay in the league we have made the great escape before and hopefully can again so forget what horror and green have done and spur this team onto survival

When were officially relegated that is when I'm sure a lot of anger towards ior will be unleashed but it will achieve nothing while we still have a tiny bit of hope.

So assuming we survive then what..? .exactly how do we ...'forget what horror and green have done and spur the team onto survival' ......... because if by any chance we do survive we'll still be in exactly the same position next season and entering into another groundhog season.
You can quite easily protest against the owners and support the team at the same time, it's not that difficult ....... unless of course you don't like to upset the owners.

So assuming we survive then what..? .exactly how do we ...'forget what horror and green have done and spur the team onto survival' ......... because if by any chance we do survive we'll still be in exactly the same position next season and entering into another groundhog season.
You can quite easily protest against the owners and support the team at the same time, it's not that difficult ....... unless of course you don't like to upset the owners.[/quote

Protest at the end of the season regardless of weather we stay up or not, I have only been supporting pools for just over 20 years but do remember the Gibson era, I remember when Harold Hornsey took over and then sold to IOR. I have seen some awful performances and also some great ones too and have always cheered the players on.

As for trying to imply I don't like to upset the owners or asking if that is the case you are very wrong and need to stop making out that every time someone says support the team don't protest they are all for the owners. Grow up

'Grow up'...? My history with Pools goes back way beyond Gibson so excuse me if I point out the bleeding obvious, because it's all been done before.
The end of the season is way too late ( a quick protest after the final game then what....nowt but an empty ground) the owners would just love that, ........ but, you can protest before a match, after a match and at half time and get on supporting the team when they're actually playing. It's not hard to differentiate between the two.