A question I've been asked down the years when wanting to know what team I support and one you've no doubt had to justify to others.
I started going in the juniors and for the simple reason they were my team, my local team. I could see from the earliest days they were never going to set the world alight and life was a perpetual struggle but it never bothered me, I just accepted it, that was our place in life, hadn't it always been so. An away win was a rare event and you envied those seemingly invincible teams like...Port Vale !
I never had the need to say I supported a 'big' club and had got to stage where losing league status could be viewed as a disaster but not life threatening... so holds no fears for me, it's just another adventure .
The IOR years were fun, a revelation but brought with it expectation, more so for those who joined the club under their stewardship and expectation gnaws away.
I still have no expectation, if I did I'd buy a Man U/ City / Arsenal/ Chelsea shirt and if really f**king desperate a Newcastle shirt, turn up at the pub and join like minded supporters in front of the big screen, but I'm not that insecure.
So... what made you get this club into your blood and keeps you coming back for more...?
It could be a virus.

Me Dad.

Started going in 1970, think I've watched about 10-12 games at Sunderland/Newcastle/Boro over those 4 decades.

Pools or no-one for me.

I think your dad can testify I was Pools daft... mainly daft.

My dad. Being from Scotland and moving to hartlepool he used to go to Sunderland, Newcastle and Boro matches. One day he decided to take me to a Pools match just to see if I'd like it.

That was it, I was hooked. Me pestering him to take me to Pools turned him into a Poolie.

I have done the same with mine. 2 season ticket holders currently and the youngest has started asking to come. Job done.

Dad took me to the pools as a child and my uncle took me to the Boro, once I was old enough to make rational decisions I chose Pools.

My Grandad loved Pools. He was club secretary for years and started taking me as soon as I was old enough to sit through a match. When he was ill and had to stop going I called in at his house after matches to give him a report. I can enjoy watching just about any football match but Pools feels like home and family to me so I think I'm stuck with them for life regardless of levels of success.

Dont we all have similar tales?

But its clear most saying the same thing are from a certain generation.

Just because it worked for us does not mean it will work for the younger generations. Infact, I am willing to bet, it wont work for them, and if pools continue to flatline at the bottom of division 4, a lot of the kids will disappear,and our crowds will resemble a local non league game, with a few old blokes dotted about.

Sad but true, as far as I can see.

Well, there's those that are born Poolies and then there's the nutters like me who actually chose a lifetime of footballing disappointment.

Grew up in East Durham, all my cousins were Mackems but my dad didn't like football so I always felt who I ended up supporting was down to me. As a 6 year old I decided I was a Wolves fan (someone bought me a football annual and I liked the strip) but growing up I hardly ever saw them play and instead went to matches with my mates at all the NE clubs.

We went to the Vic quite a lot because it was coppers on the TMS bus and not much more to get in. Never thought of myself as a Pools fan till i went away to college at the other end of the country...call it homesickness!

I can only talk for my situation, but my kids love Pools. The 6 year old was mascot v Yeovil and I can safely say the boy is and always will be a Poolie through and through.

Born i Hartlepool.
Like football.
Poolie for life as basic as that.
Been following the lads for forty years and hopefully anutha forty years.

Really? You absolutely sure about that?

I took my two from aged 4 and the youngest from 6 months old.

They both still go, now and again, but to say they are pools through and through would be a lie.

I always thought they would be, but thats no longer the case. They are both old and wise enough to see what its like, and neither have many complimentary comments to make about the players, Carson aside.

Born a poolie, remain a poolie at heart.

I don't do games that much these days, lost my appetite with the dross being served up over the last five years or so and it ended up ruining my weekend, I still listen avidly and keep a watching brief on the boards but now choose my games to attend.

I could never support another team, the thought would never enter my head, I'd give up football first.

Likewise but my tale is even more random.

I was born and raised in Northumberland and in the village I grew up in, a family from Darlington moved in. I made friends with their youngest son who was a Darlow fan. Being the wind-up merchant that I am, I thought 'how can I piss him off?' So I started following pools.

I wrote to the club (back in 1996) and they sent me two free tickets plus some programmes. Went down with my brother and that was it. I was bizarrely hooked. I haven't kept in touch much with my 'Darlow-supporting' friend. It seems he's now switched to Newcastle and lives in Manchester.

I'd bet that's the case for lots of exiles. Though I did used to go to matches before I left home, I never thought of it as an identity thing until I lived away.

But I think for some of us the identity is with the town really, and with the Club by extension because it represents the town (or used to). Not many people I've met think of their home town with the same affection as we think of Hartlepool.

They're my local team and I hate plastic clubs.

Went through a phase as a kid of being a Liverpool fan and my old man took me to a couple of their games, I watched some internationals at Wembley and then wanted to go to pools when I was about 10, saw us draw 0-0 with Colchester and I loved the atmosphere and the fact all our fans swapped ends at half time. I was hooked from then but life took over and I wasn't a regular until Chris Turner came in and a few of us went along, I hardly missed a game and did lots of away travel until last season when life took over again and this year I've seen more of our pre season than our league campaign.

Still my team and always will be, I'll watch most matches on tv but rarely care about more than Pools results and I will back to being a season ticket holder again I am sure.

True.I worked in Newton Aycliffe with 2 other lads from the town & a mixture of people from all over the north east.Quite a few of them commented of how we seemed fiercly proud of the town.

I think that's part of the underdog syndrome, we love our town people so many people have only heard bad things or haven't heard of it at all so you find yourself explaining it a lot if you travel away.

I was recently trying to find reasons to stay rooted here as for business reasons I should move away but while I can't list much I like I don't hate the place and never will.

Well, it wasn't to do with an underdog syndrome, really. Hartlepool was just a great place to grow up in. As far as I was concerned, until I was in my late teens, there was nothing I wanted to do that I couldn't find here. Sea, country, people, dance and music places, cinema etc etc.

I don't know whether younger people still feel the same way about it as I and my friends did. Perhaps they don't and that's why, as the Colonel said, loyalty to the Club is dwindling too.

I think this board is competent to talk about dwindling loyalty and enthusiasm among (some of) us old tossers and that's about it.

There's plenty of young lads and lasses on the Mill House standing and more, I'd imagine, in the Town End - can't quite see that far...

The ones near where I stand spend quite a bit of time during matches on their phones and chatting among themselves, but they turn up every week and don't seem to feel quite the same need to shout abuse at our own players as the gobshite over 40s (Go40s) fraternity.

I hated football until 1966, up until then it was all mud, brylcreem, thuggery and "effort", and as a classic wimpy kid it held no appeal for me. Then the World Cup happened - suddenly there was colour, style and exotic unpronounceable foreign names, I was hooked! Brian Clough was manager at Pools and they didn't seem an embarrassment (or, at best, a joke) anymore. My Dad preferred to obliterated small, defenceless, furry animals than watch something as poncey as football, so, at 12 years old, I went to my first game with my mate Kegga. Even a 2-1 defeat in the first floodlit game at the Vic (in a blizzard) didn't put me off. Since then I've drifted away occasionally - the eighties in particular - but always come back.
However, football now is far from the game it was in 1966, I've no interest in the Premiership/Champions league money-go-round and even at our level (with the team being crap an' all) its allure is dimming.

ive supported Pools since 1968 when me grandad first took me,i can tell you all that Hignett is the messiah,and i should know ,ive followed a few

absolutely 100% sure.

Brought up overseas to parents in the forces - both mum and dad born and bred in Hartlepool.

Growing up, followed Liverpool (still do really). Finally moved to Hartlepool in November 1990 - went to my first home game a week later with my cousin. Was hooked from then (it did help that it turned out to be promotion season.)

Been going home and away pretty much since. Now an exile again with wife and kids - so getting to games is not so easy. Will pick it up a bit more when (a) the kids are a bit older and (b) when away games are a bit more local.

As well as pools, I pretty much enjoy football so have been to a variety of games around the country. Find the top level games pretty flat in terms of atmosphere (England International WC qualifier a few years back was pretty flat - even trips to Anfield have been subdued) - maybe that's how football has changed in the last few years. Seemed pretty enjoyable in the rink end / town end in the 90s. The grounds I've been to recently have been a bit quiet.

My association with Pools is probably unique.

Born in Leeds. Family are all Leeds fans. Was a season ticket holder at Leeds for years (ending about 20-odd years ago).

Started playing Football Manager on the Spectrum when I was about 13 and decided to manage a lower league club....chose Pools and that was that. Been following Pools ever since. I won't bore you with the details as to why but needless to say finances and location played a huge part in not being able to watch Pools with any regularity until the last three years.

Absolutely love going and would go to every game if I could. As does my lad. He knows about my/my family's association with Leeds so looks for Leeds' results but is 100% a Poolie.

Started aged 3 or 4 going with my dad that was 58 years ago and continue started taking my children a girl and a boy from young ages and we all attend home and away matches even the wife who was born 90 miles away attends and is a poolie through and through

Very similar to me, never lived in the town. Parents moved away in the late 60s when my Dad joined the Army. He moved back after retirement early 2000's but Hartlepool is where all my connected family are from and so it's where I am from also, as far as I'm concerned.

I too have a premiership team that I watch (Arsenal) which dates back to the 70s and after leaving school in the late 80s, would watch arsenal one week and pools the next. One midweek game in the 90s at Highbury, pools were playing Swansea the same night and i just remember thinking That I wasn't bothered about the Arsenal score, I just wanted to know how pools were getting on. I only went back to Highbury once after that night. I get to the occasional game at The Emirates but only ever as a guest, I refuse to pay to watch.

I admit I'm a plastic fan that shouts at the tv when watching arsenal but I also shout at the players / referee / opposing fans when watching pools so put me in whatever category you wish.

Ex Manc, moved up here in 2003, I went, I saw and that was it, season ticket holder since 2006, owning a pub stopped any earlier purchase, I can`t describe why but I feckin love it, been going on my own up until this season and managed to persuade a fallen by the wayside Poolie to rekindle his love for the team, he sits next to me and pisses me off, but akin to dog sponsorship, it is only 2 hours a week and if I wear ear plugs it aint so bad

The premiership just doesn`t hold the same affection, over priced, over rated,cheating to win bollox and although we have a few incidents of fake head injuries/broken laces etc, it aint so bad

My cousin played for pools in the 90s and one boxing day my aunt called and said that they would take me to watch the game against Hull, we won that game 1-0 and since then I started going to a few games then bought a season ticket and so did my grandad. Then got a Saturday job so could only go when I was off or on a Tuesday night. Then started working away every Saturday then moved to Essex and if I work the football shuttle run on a Saturday I get free tickets to watch Colchester United, but spend most of the game checking for pools results

From Co Down, NI, opted out of mainstream footie aged 15 (got fed up with school yard bickering) picked Pools to support cos they were bottom or close to bottom of Division 4 and now entering my 39th year of being a Pools fan. Spent many years scouring newspapers for snippets of any Pools news, thank goodness for t'internet! Like someone earlier spent years managing a very successful Pools team in Football Manager land. Delighted when we signed Trevor Carson as he comes from just down the road from where I am from.

Born in East Durham went to Shotton Hall school in Peterlee with mainly mackems I had little interest in a then dire Blunderland. My dad took me to Pools in 1971 for my first football match a dire end of season 0-0 v Cambridge and I tipped the ball up into the crowd from a wayward shot and onto the pitch at the end. We went to that game as my dad said it might be the last ever league game at the Vic as we applied for re-election. We have heard that a few times !

Next season 1971-1972 we went to a few more games all limited fayre, but you could see Warnock had trickery on the left wing, Green won everything in the air, Kenny Ellis snarled in midfield but with little end product. We were bottom in January but I enjoyed it as we now sat in the Mill House posh seats with a nice old bloke form our village. Then a bit of excitement in March 1972 some football violence in a game we lost 0-1 at home to Grimsby made the front pages of the Sunday Sun and may school mates now realised we had a crowd at the Vic. Later in March and April 1972 the most marvellous time ever as a 10 and 11 year old watching Len Ashurst's great escape from relegation unlike last season this was 7 straight home wins on the bounce and rocking crowds of 6,000 and my first footballing hero 'Willie Waddell on the wing' and bog roll thrown onto the pitch whenever we scored. Great days you could stuff your Super Macs and George Best running out of that hut on the Clarence Road were real men!

Honestly, it took me a while. My main footballing influence, my Dad, is a Glaswegian, so my main team has always been Celtic. It is however expensive to get up to Glasgow every week, so I am usually limited to three or four trips a season.

I do think you should follow your local team too, so once I got into the habit of going to watch Pools with friends, I pretty much got hooked on it.

I started going when I was 4 or 5. My dad already took my older sister and then I started going as well. We still go as a family now. Don't know who my first game was against but I know my first away game was Swindon in the FA cup, Razor Ruddock scored a penalty for them

My first match

24 November 1990 - at the Vic against Scarborough.

Pools won 2 - 0.

I missed both goals.

I had never been so cold in my life and missed both goals as I was buying Bovril from the food hut that used to sit at the bottom of the Millhouse steps closest to the rink end.

Mam and dad ! used to take us from a very young age, both of them missed very few games (both home and away) until he passed away aged 74.
Not a bad childhood some parents make there kids go to church, we had to go to pools

As a kid I my cousin used to travel to Sunderland and wanted me to go there, but it made no sense to my kids mind...I had my team on my doorstep, why go there , to what purpose ?
Also, if he thought I was wasting what little pocket money I got on a train ride and the rest he was away with the fairy's.

Me dad wasn't into footy, so it was up to the husband of my mam's mate to take me for my first trip To the Vic when I was about seven. We beat Halifax 3-0 and I was hooked.

Am in the process of brainwashing my two lads into being Poolies now. I took the eldest to his first game when he was three, and Barnet next week will be something like the 12th ground he'll have watched Pools at. He's not mad into footy, just loves the day out and all the chanting/jeering etc. Hopefully that bit will stick with him in spite of the performances.

The youngest will be ready for his first game next season I reckon, despite me first having bought a season ticket for him when he was a week old.

How old is the youngest Mr PiN?

victoria park is my church

I went with my dad at the age of 8 in 1990 and was hooked went to every home game after that till I went to uni. First away game was Carlisle one boxing day might been in 1996 and still is the coldest I have been at a football match.

Gutted I cant go to games due to location and family but that will come again later in life. Its weird how little things remind you of early visits to footy mine always will be cherry flavoured tunes, my dad used to buy me a pack before the match. In the early days we sat at the back of the Mill House near the press box and always remember this guy who had an old school rattle he used to turn when we scored.

same as most on here me dad took me at an early age to give me mam some peace on a Saturday afternoon.first game was a 6-1 win against scarboro in the fa cup 1972 ish,that was pretty much as good as it got for a long time.I got hooked and we never missed a match for ages,me dad used to say it was character building following pools!
Ive tried watching as a neutral at boro andnewcastle,I even used to get vip comps for leeds when they were living the dream but I just cant get into it,somethings missing.
neil Warnock was in the pools side that day and I bumped into him a year or two back,I told him he was playing the first time I saw a football match,between us we tried to name the side that played that day however when I checked in the mad crowd we'd got most of them wrong.he reckoned the reason he left pools was that they'd put him and his missus up in a b&b at the back of the staincliffe,one day afte training he gets a phone call from his missus screaming because too fing big rats had ran across the room,stopped and stared her out for a bit,that was it had to get away from hartlepool

5 in May, and a bit of a workie-ticket.

What a disturbing story,Andy .. His parents must have been well chuffed when he moved away from the likes of you,eh ?

Def old enough if he wants to go. My eldest has been going since that age and loves it, even the youngest has been coming to some games since the back end of last year and he only turned four this month.

With hindsight the eldest was too young at three, he used to get bored and would just play with his cars. I took my sister's twins when they were six and it was the perfect age for them.

Plus my youngest is a proper handful and starts fights with my eldest on a regular basis. He's come on a ton since he started school so I reckon next season he'll be fine.