Having had me xmas morning 5 mile jog , me Turkey, half a gallon of fine ale and a wife saying fancy looking at sofas in the sale tomorrow .........
Well that has done it for me.
I am going fire up the chariot and charge north to what is my duty after 45 years of supporting Pools for what will be maybe my last ever boxing day game as a league club.
If any of my former school mates from those East Durham villages and Peterlee are going then here is what it means ................

It is a bit like the miner's strike of 30 years ago. Discord and no harmony in Easington, soup kitchens in Horden, slogans on walls in Blackhall and a 1985 home game against Mansfield in an unroofed Town end separating with a barrier some Stags fans, from a baying mob of very vociferous home support berating those visiting fans, who I believe were top of the league at the time and 0-1 up at half time, with chants of 'scabs, scabs, scabs'. Fighting on the pitch was the half time entertainment.

Then up stepped one unlikely hero. He was fat round and his ar... you know the rest, slow, shovel footed, but whole heartedly Pools, just 5 and half foot tall, Sir Roy of Hogan, slotting in from the spot, and I never saw him miss a penalty, despite misplacing tackles and punts forward with clockwork monotony, securing a leveller. Typical of that period we did not find a winner despite having the gifted Nigel Walker in our team, but we were never out fought !

Having just read about Easington and 30th anniversary of the Miner's strike it is time to rekindle that spirit.

For those aged over 45 google miner's strike and read the "The miners' strike revisited: Digging up the past" about Easington and Alan Cummings MP the 4th article below the pictures.

In the last week we have had our equivalent of 'Maggie Maggie Maggie out out out', Mr Hodcroft has sold up, some would say a bit like the Nottinghamshire miners.
As we travel to Nottinghamshire tomorrow was there ever a better time to return to the old theme of us being loud and proud and to stanbd up for what we believe in - the rights of the under dog.

Maybe to the theme tune of Robin Hood ' Ronnie Moore will try and be riding through the glen'.

However, his merry men will probably lose.

I hope he team talk goes something like this ................. headphones, hair gell and mobile phones in the bin. You are playing today for a part of the country that has endured 3 bitter miner's strikes, closing docks and steel works in the last century. Alan Goad, Billy Ayre, Sir Roy of Hogan, and on looking from the stands Sir Robert of Newton never earned their cult status by being fancy dans. If it moves, kick it. The travelling faithful, Len Ashurst, Tony Toms, Billy Horner, Cyril Knowles and I expect bookings go and get them by being first to the ball and a 'one out all out' miner's off side trap.

The miner's ultimately may have lost the war in 1984-5, 1972 and 1926, but they won our hearts.

Decent read that mate and I'm closer to a thatcherite than most. Nice one. Have a good one tomorrow and let's hope for the best. Wish I could make it, I've got the in-laws... some straw ive pulled there.

Ronnie Moore Ronnie Moore riding through the glen...

Used to love the Boxing Day games but then 9 years ago I went n had a bloody kid on Boxing Day and she's changed everything.

Enjoy!


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Good read marra! The miners won though in 1972 and 1974, unfortunately Thatcher never forgot that.

John Cummings was the MP for Easington, Alan was the union man at the pit. I may be in his company on Monday in Sunderland at the annual DMA p*ss up.

Got DVD The Enemy Within for xmas, worth a watch.

Its about Scargill I take it. I've always found a similarities between the miners of 84 and the Tommies of WW1. Brave lads but foolhardy tactics.

No its about the strike, what tactics would you have used then? not foolhardy at all just very one sided, a trades union against the state