From BBC 606...

Dion Donley (who supports Man U and Hartlepool)
posted 4 Days Ago

I don't think you should just limit this to season tickets, I think you should look into the prices you have to pay at the door, normaly for lower league clubs, £12 for a child in some places, thats the reason I stopped going to Hartlepool United, and it doesn't help when during the first half of the season they couldn't play football.


I'm sure the prices at Man U are higher than ours...

breast

breast

Two breasts
Always better than one

£12 when?

We don't need the likes of him

Let him watch Man U on the telly, with a can of plastic lager - to go with his plastic team

'Dion Donley'?!?!

Say no more!!!!

Sorry for the vastly late reply, I stumbled upon your article only yesterday, but I haven't had time to form a reply.
I'm not "having a go" at Hartlepool's tickets prices specifically, more the growing trend among football right across the board of increasing ticket prices, yes, Man Utd are more guilty than most, and the working class man who generates the atmosphere (sadly I’m only in this number once a month now) is being forced out, and sometimes as a consequence Old Trafford is as flat as a pancake.
The £12 wasn't in fact a reference to Hartlepool at all, can't remember which club it was exactly, as the comment was posted some months ago. I'll admit, I'm not happy with the prices, I can't afford to go to both Hartlepool and Man Utd, so Man Utd has to come first. I'm not the only one that is unhappy with the ticket prices, look at the vote here http://www.hartlepool.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=90086. If some of you can't access the link, then I'll post the results:
The latest Vital Hartlepool Poll asked Pools fans whether ticket prices were too expensive at the Vic.
Yes (65%)
Just About Right (24%)
Not Dear Enough (11%)
Which is of course by no means conclusive, but it does show some others show my concerns.
For those who find my name amusing, I guess you have something in common with my parents I'm actually named after Dion Dublin, about the only footballer my mum would let my dad name me after.
If you ever have another query with one of my posts on 606, feel free to tell contact me there, I'm sure you'll get a far quicker reponce than you have this time.

All the best Dion "let's all laugh at his name" Donley.

Premature ejaculation.

My Dad's from Manchester, moved up here for some work at the power station, then met my mother, the rest is as they say "history". I'd be strung up if I was anything other than a Man Utd fan in my house. It's in my blood now, can't do anything about it.

That's understandable to be fair.

Just out of interest, what's the most irritating name that fans of other teams call your beloved Man Utd or its fans?

Is his name a cross between Dion Dublin and Dwane Dibley?

Is this a trick question? Well imho, it's probably "Glory Hunter" because it gets thrown around a lot as soon as they realise my age (16 for those who care) and think I automatically support Man Utd because they are sucessful, which gets up my nose sometimes.

And to ADG, well I can't actually make Man Utd get relegated to prove that I'm a propper Man Utd fan, I can't say I haven't wanted to string Ronaldo up once or twice, that might have a negative effect.

Yubep: Not sure, I don't think my parents picked my second name tbh.

I can't even remember posting this.

Does the buck toothed chubby Brazilian play for Man u nowadays?

Oh well, I guess I deserve the stick for typing my own name into google

Ripper: No the Portugese diving one does though

Munich scum probably

No, that normally generates a chuckle on behalf of the other fans ignorance, since they clearly don't realise that tradgety probably cost England another World Cup.

this feller has to be snowman on a wind up

Them two team gadgies stick together.

I'm not really a "two team" gadgie, I make it clear my alligance is with Man Utd, but I like watching football, and for 6 seasons I watched Hartlepool's home games (Didn't have anyone to take me to the away games) but got priced out. Hartlepool are my home team and in that sense are very dear to me, and I always want them to win (unless they're playing Man Utd) and if I get offered a ticket I'll go and cheer as hard as anyone, but I "support" Man Utd.

[quote="dion"
I'm actually named after Dion Dublin, about the only footballer my mum would let my dad name me after.

All the best Dion "let's all laugh at his name" Donley. [/quote]

Hmmm, How come your Mam wanted you named after Dion Dublin, is it because he was widely reported to be "specially gifted", nudge nudge wink wink..

Leave the lad alone

6-0

'Supporting' Man U is the thing done by people who have the greatest insecurity of all.....'Supporting' that team, which is usually there or thereabouts at the end of the season, is to wrap oneself in guaranteed glory and thus be able to avoid the little crises that the rest of us have to just learn to live with in our football lives.
I really can't take seriously anyone who says they 'support' Man U...

Well put.

Where as we wrap ourselves in guaranteed Crises and avoid the glory!

We wouldn't have it any other way.....mind you.............

Well like I said, I haven't really had the chance to "prove" myself as a Man Utd supporter, but then gain, I can't take the views of someone who dissmisses the views of millions of people because of the football team they support. If you can honestly say you wouldn't like to see Hartlepool get promoted to the Premier League in the next two seasons, then you clearly don't have your teams best interests at heart, and if you can, then your a hypocrite.

Who cares if the lad's a Man Utd fan? I find it a bit annoying reading through a thread with posters who are beating down on a 16-year-old kid because he supports Man Utd. Pools IS expensive. I pay it, but it's expensive. Especially for the shite I've seen over the past few weeks.

Man Utd, like Arsenal, like others, play good football and they're good to watch. They're no longer the main hate figure in English football (eclipsed in my eyes by single players, Chelsea and the England national squad).

I think it's a bit jingoistic to say you can only have allegiances to one or another. I don't support two teams myself (unless you count other sports) but I like to see good football.

People can go on about the perfect world of football without the Big Four or how Scottish football is killed off by Glasgow teams, but at the end of the day it's all down to the capitalist nature of the game, fair and square. The only way any team will do well is to have a rich investor come along and buy everything the team needs. Pools will never have that. Pools wouldn't survive in the Championship. Everyone knows that Pools will never have anything strong above the current level... but we like it that way. It's just supporting a lower league club that does that to you.

But not EVERYONE has to support either Premiership or Football League football. If anything, Dion IS supporting football because he's not blinkered enough to see one side or the other. If I had any ties to Premiership clubs I'd probably support them myself too, but I'd still be a Hartlepool fan.

I do hope you lot are having fun stoving in a 16-year-old for having a different view even though he's been to Pools for 6 years without a personal disposable income. The three lads I stand with at Pools are ALL Man Utd fans but they haven't missed a home game they could get to in 7 or 8 years. Does that mean they're not proper fans too, or that they don't support football?

Crikey.

God i hope this is the guy in my year at college haha.
He is same age and that as well.

If you live in Hartlepool, and cant afford to follow both, surely it is cheaper to follow pOOLS?

Exactly.

Let's keep pushing him in the right direction with reason! With reason I tell thee.

Are you serious...?

Er how do you 'prove' yourself as a Man U 'supporter'...buy Sky +..? Who said I wouldn't like to see Pools go all the way, but if they ever did, they wouldn't be surrounded by the hype that is endemic with 'supporting' Man U. Man U is a global brand and as such attracts the people who buy their football, the consumers of football as opposed to the 'supporters'. A season ticket for Old Trafford is little more than a status symbol to the designer brigade, a badge that says ..."look at me, I'm a top fan because I support Man U"....
As for dismissing the views of millions..I AM DISMISSING THEIR FOOTBALL VIEWS ...... and since when did numbers prove anything, people voted Ant and Dec top on the recent TV awards but they aint funny....

Mancs are a global brand and all the rest and they do attract hangers on and johnny come lately's but their core fan base is hardcore local lads and lasses who are hacked off with all the rest as much as anyone.

Sky dropped lucky imo - had the scousers been in their pomp when the Prem kicked off I do not believe TV footy would have taken off in the same way. The mancs play proper football which people willingly pay to watch. Gooners the same. Scousers have always played the percentages and are a drab club.

My kids support Leeds because I do even though they were born elsewhere. That's just the natural order of things even though my eldest pops into see her local (premier league) team from time to time she will never be swayed because as she says - it's not like ER dad

when I go to places like Billingham Town etc, the football is played for the love of the game, there's no blind ambition or greed, and that's the level of football I would turn to as a spectator if anything ever happened to Pools.
No fu-cking way on this Earth would I ever go to watch a premier league team, or England for that matter instead.
I would certainly follow Pools in the Northern Premier League or whatever (in the style of AFC Wimbledon), before I ever subscribed to the corporate machines such as Real Madrid, Man Utd, Liverpool etc. I despise everything those clubs stand for, and I laughed my head off at this yesterday:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 108721.stm

Yes.

While reading the Sunday papers I just had a conversation with my lad who teaches in a primary school in Heywood just outside of North Manchester. I was asking how Sven's success at Man City was going down. The lad's girlfriend who knows not of footy was enquiring as to how the two Mancs teams related to one another.

I uttered the pearls of wisdom that for the last 30yrs City had been Manchester's 2nd team to United. "Not in my school", says the lad. "United is the country's first team and City is Manchesters first team. There's loads of City fans among the kids (and I bet that means their dads as well) and not many United ones and they're all delighted with themselves now they're 3rd".

I don't know Mancs and it may be that City is supported mostly in North Mancs but at least there it's City that's the local team that everyone keeps their eye on.

I'm led to believe that most Scousers follow Everton for the same reason that City fans follow their own team in Manchester.
I would hate it if Poolies only made up about 35% of our home crowds as well!!!!
Liverpool have as many out-of-towners as Man Utd - but they don't get as much stick for it as Man Utd does.

There's a bit of a sectarian divide between the two clubs with the proddydogs as they're referred to locally, gravitating towards Everton. Remember this is still the City of the Orange Lodge march to Southport.

I worked with 400 fellers in Liverpool and used to see a fair number of them at the match all long term season ticket holders and still are. You don't price a scouser out of a footy match thats for sure. Now though if you don't get a ticket on a tuesday for Sats match you don't get in which I guess puts a stop on the guy who decides on Friday night to go tomorrows game which I'm sure is caused by the travelling supporters.

End of the day, I'm a Poolie. I don't need or want a second team. If I wanted instant success, or any success at all, I'd have found another team to cling on to.
As Parmo said, if they dropped through the leagues I'd still be there.
Finally, the moral dilemma.... if you supported Pools and Man U and they were playing each other in the Cup, where would your 'loyalties' lay.....see it's impossible.

We support the underdogs. End of. Lower league football fans naturally go for the lesser team because it causes a bigger upset and we naturally dislike big clubs. We like the fact we're surrounded by other people from Hartlepool, and the fact that it's the sporting personification of the town.

And as much as I'm a Pools fan only (and I do actually like you as a poster, Snowy), it's just not as black or white as that. My three ManUre-supporting friends are just as fervent, if not way more Poolie than Man Utd. That doesn't stop you wanting to see one more team out of 92 do well, regardless of their pedigree (I only stopped hating Man Utd. properly about 2 years ago myself).

I support Pools only. But it's just not as black or white as that with other people. Accept it.

We usually agree Ginger, but on this oneI have to disagree with you. We can all admire the style of certain teams in the higher leagues, but there's a big difference between admiration and support, if someone can't see that, they have totally lost the plot. Man U were at the forefront of the rush for the dosh and therefore have since then annoyed me greatly, not the football, but the politics of the game. Man U in particular have always been a beacon for those 'fans' weak willed enough to hang onto their coat tails ....... they are the standard bearers of the Disneyfication of football, a leader in global branding. THE ULTIMATE OUTCOME WILL BE ONLY TWO TEAMS IN THE PREMIERSHIP.....Man U will play London City every fortnight and all other clubs in the country will be irrelevant..... everyone will be a complete TV football watching mug and football will have descended to the level of wrestling.

youd stop going to see pools if they got in the top league,thats not being a fan its the same as somebody who likes ma.u but instead of going for glory your going for lower league football

I can completely understand where you're coming from MadJohn/Snowy, but I really don't think any of these pseudo-political contexts ever cross the mind of young supporters who indulge in both a club like ourselves and a big team like Man Utd. Nor do I think it's at all a patronising notion to say lower league fans instinctively dislike big clubs because everything being said in this debate constitutes exactly that notion one way or another. We all loved it when Leeds had a further fall from grace and we'll always sing "you're not famous anymore" at clubs with an old legacy. I don't think a big club is described as one bigger than Pools either.

The fact is, people want good football. They look to the Premiership.

Capitalism + success = bigger gaps between big clubs and small. There's no hiding that. Sport has been a business for years, you only have to see the ramifications of administration with the likes of Leeds and Luton. You can't turn around now and act like it's an outrage, because it's been the case for the last 30 years. Big stadiums = big revenue. Open market = unlimited gains.

Sport is not at all limited by the open market, nor should it be, and saying that it was a "bad enough crime against English football" to have the break-away is picking away at the nomenclature of the league system. Sky would have always paid for the top division only because that's what the masses want. Promoted teams on a whole haven't stayed up for more than a season for donkeys years.

Big clubs are all from big cities and have big fanbases to compensate. Hartlepool would never have more than 10,000, maybe 12k at a push even if we got to the real heights. We're already consigned to the depths of the Football League. Many of us like it that way, maybe too much (if what Mutley says is true). I've only been following Pools properly for 10 years (in terms of regularly going to the games), and I've always seen that the lower leagues is where we'll belong, and seemingly always will belong.

Points I will agree on are G14 (unnecessary) etc, but it seems like it's actively encouraged by the whole Champions' League concept anyway. I'd say that was more the fault of UEFA.

Liverpool is a prime example of this, when they failed to qualify for the 'Champions League' the season after they won it, the rule was bent and they were allowed in

They failed to qualify that season because they weren’t good enough and for that reason alone shouldn’t have been allowed back in

PS

And Gerrard is a pea hearted talentless long legged buffoon

Prior to the late 80's, the old first division was a source of pleasure. it was the top flight and very entertaining, especially in the 70's, then along came the leeches, the money people, the image moulders....and mediocrity was given a fanfare, a fancy new name and top flight football became an exclusive soap opera. I'Ve despaired over the past few years as a dumbed down audience have flocked to worship a t the premiership, whose marketing was not aimed at people through the turnstile, they're just extra's for effect, but at the commercial armchair participants market, a far more lucrative and rewarding payback in everything from replica kits to wide screen TV's...
We as a nation are becoming as dumb as f*** and eventually gonna lose a lot more.
What's to say in 20 years time the only pro team around here is Tees Valley United...? I dare say the proposed new tram system will speed you through to the Tees Valley Stadium (formerly known as the Riverside) and your offspring will wonder why you still go to see Pools......" cos they're shite" ...... and our local MP will be looking forward to Tees Valley Utd's coming season, he is a season ticket holder there after all.

I thought TGP was defending the right of a 16yr old to support his team and go and watch pools as well. Well done TGP, we need more people through our turnstiles and if they happen to support another team but are willing to pay and watch us, then we should be welcoming them and asking them to bring friends instead of reacting with the equivelent of 'little mans disease'

Your debate on the premiership, the politics of football corporations, the obsessive marketing to armchair fans ( and frankly that is just good business as I don't see a half full Old Trafford even when they are playing someone shyte) by the way is excellent, articulate and well debated and I congratulate you on that.

I liike the way you distinguish between 'admirer' and 'supporter' I just don't think many people have stopped to analyse that deeply, when the words 'football' and 'supporter' are so intrinsically linked plus the fact that if you were in the pub and came out with 'I'm an admirer of manchester utd' you would sound like a girl, (no offence to the laydees intended)

please keep this debate going as it makes interesting reading

According to Dibble's world.

So long as there is a clear order of preference then I see no problem.

If this kid supports Pools and Man U but his clear preference is Man U then what is the problem?

I know you do.

You'd have thought that with all of the practice that you've had you would be quite good at it by now though.