getting closer.

They beat Bradford Park Avenue in the first play off round last night, Lewis Hawkins score the only goal and according t'Bradford Telegraph and Argus
"Spennymoor worked themselves into the match at last and late on, Hawkins scored a sublime effort to win it."

Seem to remember the only two he ever scored for us were pretty good and all!

Sign him now!

wouldn't we have to release him first to do that?

I'm off to Throston Bookies - I want odds on a Hawkins double against Pools next season...

[quote="Bluestreak"]Sign him now!

[quote="ed-t-ball"]wouldn't we have to release him first to do that?

Bugger yes we would.....that makes it complicated then.

Probably a few of the released players end up at Spenny.
Pools v Pools rejects derbie.

Step nearer won on penalties.

Hawkins with the winning penalty, Chorley in the final who they have beaten twice this season

Even if they do go up (and good luck to them I’d like to see them win) it’s never going to be a derby is it? We have no historical beef or connection with them, they are only slightly less plastic than the likes of Fylde and Salford essentially where they are where they are and not still in the Evostick or lower because of one persons money.

We only have one derby and that’s been resting for a while. We have been in the same League as Gateshead for a couple of years and I have never seen any evidence of an actually rivalry, the attendances didn’t suggest any. You’d rather they came up because it’s closer than Chorley but that’s about it really and we’ll have to find someone else to play in one of our pre season matches! I am not sure a derby can be manufactured to be honest.

Spenny fans will probably want a love in with another team that hate Darlo.
They have a massive chip on their shoulders with us since despite outspending us and being able to offer more money than we can, they have only ever beaten us once in a proper game. And you get some of their support who won’t admit they are bankrolled by Groves, saying they have good sponsors. However most of their big sponsors are companies owned by the same man, Groves.
If they do go up, expect them to compete and outbid you for any players willing to move to the north east, or have first dibs on any north east based players.

And it the Spennymoor fans who have a massive chip on their shoulder!?



I’d like to think with our fanbase we can still outbid a part time club for full time professional players so it’s probably a bit different to what you have faced. To be fair haven’t you lot consistently (especially when Weasel face was still manager) overspent on your squad to get back to where you are?

Do your supporters view it as a derby?

think everyone will class it as a derby because of the distance between the two clubs. doubt there is any rivalry yet but say another 5 seasons at the present level it could start. hope chorley win though as its nearer for me to see an away game.

Trust me, Spenny fans are more bothered about us than we are about them. They were our main rivals for winning the Northern League but they were never regarded as a "derby" in the sense that Darlo/Pools was. More like Gateshead or York, a local game and a day out but nothing like our rivalry ever was.
Also, did you not listen to what Craig Hignett had to say about competing with part tine clubs for players who also have day jobs? Forget about that didn't you!! Players like Glen Taylor would walk into your team but you can't afford to pay him what he would lose from his teaching job as well as his football wage.
Yes Gray overspent but we still spent far less than they did and we don't rely on one person to make up the difference.

Yes I did listen to what Higgy said and commented at the time that it sounded like a decent idea in practice but wouldn’t actually work in reality you are either part time or full time, so we are shopping at different markets.

For someone who isn’t bothered you sound quite bitter towards them I am not knocking what you as fans have achieved but overspending is actually probably more sustainable long term if you have someone at the helm prepared to keep putting his hand in his pockets rather than expect the fans to do it over and over again. I think the perfect middle ground is a model with someone like him and the fans working together, in an ideal world. Good luck to them I say.

No gripe with them as a club or Groves as a chairman as he seems a decent bloke with his heart in the right place.
The only gripe I have is with some of their fan base that slag us off when we have boost the budget appeals etc, saying the begging bowl is out again, whilst ignoring the fact their chairman is doing their own boost the budget out of his own pocket because any fund raising initiatives they have don't get anywhere near the amount they are asked to raise.
Theres one in particular who posts on Uncovered, trying to be all nice as pie whilst slagging us on on every other form of social media.
At least I am consistent on here, have a bit of banter and say it as I see it even if you don't like what I say, as it should be of course.

[quote="PJPoolie"]Yes I did listen to what Higgy said and commented at the time that it sounded like a decent idea in practice but wouldn’t actually work in reality you are either part time or full time,
be interesting to see how stockport do next season as they intend to be part full part part time side. if they are succesfull then it could be a good idea.

The difficulty with using part time players in the National League is that it isn't regionalised. Things will be a bit better next season as four southern NL teams got relegated - though Aldershot could well get a reprieve if Gateshead go out of business. On the other hand, Torquay and Yeovil have come into the division; not great for part-time players needing time off work.

It might work for Stockport if their manager isn't averse to a bit of squad rotation.

Good luck to Spennymoor v Chorley.


Pools v Spenny bring it on in next seasons promotion at Wembley season.
UTP.

I'm just so pleased you guys have finally embraced non-league football. Long may we live .

From a neutral perspective on this subject, Spennymoor United went bust. Evenwood Town (who were struggling in NL2) were asked to "merge". The "fairly" merged new club moved from Evenwood to Spennymoors old ground, changed their home strip to Spennymoor Uniteds colours, changed the badge to guess who's, and then as a new club, kept 1 of the merged clubs records and forgot about the other one!!!! On the plus side Town was "kept" as part of the "merger".

Plastic club??? Ask Evenwood Town people, supporters, ex players, ex committee , volounteers etc?.

TBF fair play to Brad Groves and what he has done since he came on board. However for those selfless Barstools who raped and pillaged Evenwood Town........ I nearly swore there.

Heres one for you PJ, I have heard from a very good source that Pools inquired about a Darlo player the other week. This players football wage, never mind his other wage, was higher than that of Nicky Featherstone.
You sure you can still outbid part time clubs?

Can we just lock the thread now?

Isn't it funny how often "I have heard from a very good source" is the cue from some total drivel?

Leaving aside wondering how an unsuccessful National League North club with no ground and next to no fans can afford to pay big 'football wages,' my belief is well and truly beggared at the idea that Hignett or Maguire or whoever would volunteer information about their own club's salary structure in response to the astounding amount Darlington 2468 Motorway are forking out for a part-timer. Cor Blimey!

Up there was hatcam that one

I am pretty sure that’s how transfer negotiations go;

Pools; Hello is that Darlington Football club

Darlo; Yes

Pools; We would like to I inquire about John Smith please

Darlo; Well that’s all well and good but you do release he’s on more than Nicky Featherstone

Pools; Silence

Darlo; Hello...... hello

Pools; engaged tone.

Utter nonsense. At what point of an ‘inquiry’ would the wages of both players get disclosed!? Jesus

Plus you continue to ignore my actual point that a full time club in the main will be trying to sign players who are full time or at least those with aspirations of becoming full time pros, part time clubs can obviously make a player better off by supplementing a decent wage in a proper job. It’s not really rocket science. Plus again if you are paying big wages then it’s ridiculous given seat of the pants state of your finances so I wouldn’t be boasting about it.

Often when I go for a job they tell me the salary of other people in the company, thus completely breaking GDPR rules.

Talk to the right people and you find things out. An enquiry was made and it hasnt gone further so far but the player in question is out of contract.
I'm not ignoring your point, however players follow money and they wont care if they are full time of part time. We have had players in the last couple of years that class themselves as professional footballers and spend their days either running sideline businesses, doing degrees or sitting around the house.
And dont go on about finances like you are some beacon of sustainability because you are more in the shit than us and will be for a good while yet.

I don’t think we’d claim to beacons of anything to be honest apart from being shit for about ten years but I’d imagine you know about as much about our finances as your mate does about our wage structure.

If you claiming that you are paying part time players more than we are our longest serving player when you rent from a rugby club and get gates of barely a thousand I wouldn’t call that very sustainable to honest though, I don’t think most sensible Pools are kidding ourselves about the challenges we face but in the main our fan base has stayed loyal and it would only take a bit of success to see us back to getting good crowds. It’s nice that the assets strippers and mainly the outright thieves are off the scene though so we at least have half a chance. We’re still here hoping though it’s that, that kills you!

As for this player we are interested in, why not name him. It’s only a transfer rumour, I couldn’t name many of your players but a few mentioned a full back looked decent who plays for you who played with Luke James in that England C game Trottman?

Luke Trotman is under contract so its not him.

Only a few minutes of extra time left and it's Chorley 1- Spennymoor 1 in the play-off final.

Harrison and Hawkins both taken off after 90 minutes as both more knackered than the part-timers

Chorley wins on pens. Tough luck on Spennymoor.

I did wonder what it would mean for Radio Tees' live coverage of Pools games if the Moors went up. Probably would have gone to every other game like it was when we were in the same division as the Loids.

Utter Bollox PJ

It would be a brrrrrrrrrrrr sound call ended tone not the engaged tone if one party hung up.

I went down there I don't ever feel there's any bad feeling between Spennymoors fans and Pools. I go to Moors when pools are not on as it's 15 minutes to Spennymoor from home. Pools have been my team for nearly 20 years now so I was hoping Moors would lose the game as through purely selfish reasons there's some canny local derbies with Darlo, Blyth,York etc and the way the fixtures are I have seen quite a few Tuesday and Saturday games when Pools are away.

It was a good effort from Spennymoor today I have been telling Moors fans how I don't rate Hawkins or Harrison for Pools but Harrison was mom for me today, alongside ex Gateshead defender James Curtis he put a shift in and has done since he joined, Hawkins has been a talisman in the last coup!e of weeks on the lead up until today. I would expect Hawkins to join Spennymoor once the retained lists out.

Today was a good game for the neutral and a good advert for non league bar the tossers from Chorley who managed to bring smoke bombs in. Chorley were a set of dirty bastards from what I saw today who managed to hoodwink the ref, I wouldn't fear them too much next season !

Don’t forget the also tell random people with no association to the company


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Nothing wrong with Hignett saying to the person I know " We enquired about X but found out hes currently being paid more that Y who already plays for us".
As it happens, if you want this particular player you will have to pay a fee since he is another one we have taken up a year option on.

[quote="PJPoolie"

If you claiming that you are paying part time players more than we are our longest serving player when you rent from a rugby club and get gates of barely a thousand I wouldn’t call that very sustainable to honest though,
could be a case of this player getting more in his proper job than featherstone gets for pools and what he gets from darlo is just icing on his cake. plenty of teachers playing better class non league football who could not afford to go full time even at football league level.

Loan star said his football wage was higher than Featherstones.

This thread has pre season written all over it


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It'd got 'wind up' written all over it.

It’s good that Loan Star is not prepared to name this high rolling Conference North player but quite happy to accuse our manager of tapping up

Where did I accuse anyone of tapping a player up?
A genuine enquiry was made and when the wages were mentioned thats when it went cold. Simple as that.
Player in question was Jordan Nicholson and we have just taken up the year option we had on him.

According to his Twitter account he is (or was in February) a part-time fitness coach based in Cambridgeshire. That's handy for Darlington!

He could be ideal for us- he's 200 miles closer to half our National League opponents than the rest of the team is. If only we could manage the wages

In your example of what ‘happened.’

If he’s contracted to Darlo then any enquiry would be to the club first not the player, we’re all aware it doesn’t always happen like that, but that’s what you call tapping a player up!

As for Jordan Nicholson, no me neither.

I said that Pools made the enquiry to Darlo about one of our players and were put off by the wages he was on. I didnt say anything about Hignett tapping anyone up at all. He told my source that he was on more than Featherstone. Suggest you get your eyes tested!!

From what I have heard he is considering moving up this way as he is dating someone up here now too.
Considering Wright got pelted for signing too many players from down country, two of our best performers were Nicholson, based in Cambridgeshire and Trotman, based in Luton.

It just goes to show that southern-based players can be persuaded to move to clubs based in the North-East if the deal and the situation looks right for them. Higgy has persuaded quite a few too.

How much is Featherstone on like?

Less than Nicholson Dafty. Keep up at the back!!!!!