Home to Aldershot after beating top of the table Chesterfield on Monday, reaching the FA Trophy final, yet only 892 people there tonight

Makes there achievements even more remarkable.
We surely need to raise the bar and try to emulate these ambitions next season.

Made 8 changes but played really well until the a mistake by the by tinkler ( very unlike him ) left the keeper against a forward and brought him down resulting in a red card. He was replaced in goal by a player due to no keeper on the bench. Its so annoying how tiny Gateshead can play 8 bench players and still do well overall.

I really like Gateshead and the way they're doing things (and I hope they go up via the playoffs so we don't have to play them again for a while).

The difference between them and us and the way this season has gone is that they've got someone in charge who has a bit of a clue.

And we've got Raj and Lennie.

I predicted on here they would be the " dark horse " before the season started. I watched them against Newacastle first team in pre- season and they totally out played them leading 2-0 at half time. The passing and movement was way above this standard. Second half Newcastle ground them down and won the game. And remember they lost the manager mid season to MKD and a few good players.This is a club that does things right from Chairman down to tea lady. Not a single penny is taken by out by the owners. Every spare penny plus cash investments are ploughed into the team building. They have also got to two F.A.Trophy finals in a row. Goes to show how bad Pools have been run lately, must be embarrassing for Raj to see a tiny neighbour doing so well

Not disagreeing Kev, but with a crowd that apathetic and locals so steeped in Geordie mania for years you have to question its viability.
But it’s not Gateshead the club, but those appointed to run the team recently who are apparently undervalued by a town that’s lost pride in itself.

Not sure Raj and Lenny had much to do with them none league scottish players we signed which have clearly crippled the wage budget, But i agree a much better season required

“Not a single penny taken out by the owners” i.e Sugar daddy. We all know what happens when they walk away. However good luck to Gateshead.

there are other clubs with big neighbours on their steps but have always fared better with gates. its like other clubs though that the present ones running the club are far superior than ours. what would them and others do with 4,000 gates that could become higher. we all know the answer to that.

I make a difference between the owner and Manager, getting the right manager is the key.

and having a better scouting network as well or something we do not know where players in all groups are advised to stay away from us. on a personal note i managed to get trials at halifax and watford but try as me and my old man tried i could not get one at pools and he was an ex player. i never bothered with the first and not overbothered with the second as it was only pools i wanted to play for. doubt i was the only one at the time by a long shot.

Apparently thats not the case Johno. I believe 3 or 4 small businesses owners ( all supporters) got together as a consortium to save the club. No sugar daddies here just supporters who want the club to survive. I watched them getting interviewed and it was obvious they had no choice but to take over and give it a go otherwise the club would have died. One of the small businesses has been a main sponsor for many many years and I believe he runs a small bus company in Gateshead. The person they chose to be Chairman and run the day to day businesses ( without pay or expenses ) is a small successful business owner from down south. He was born in Gateshead and was a season ticket holder along with his dad for years. His job took him South but now he has moved his family to Gateshead to concentrate on running the club properly. He appointed a manager to run his business. These lads are far from well off, they are loyal supporters who love Gateshead

Thanks for that Leggie but at the end of the day they must be putting money into the club as obviously they are not getting it through the gates and I don’t think they have ever had. I do put my hands up to them and wish them luck.

Can you imagine a group of business owners coming together to save Hartlepool United when the current owner had decided he had lost interest and wanted to leave? I can't. I imagine they would put together the offer he wanted only to be told he wanted more and then to be told they were the ones at fault for the club's difficulty in bringing players in. He might then say he wanted to take the club forward and then a few months later say he was taking a step back from running the club after negotiating a bit more with said group and then ignoring another significant offer for the club.
This is obviously hypothetical and nothing in there is truth, it's just what I would imagine would happen if a group of business owners came together to save the club.

I love our Hartlepudian sarcasm

I'll never forget Raj almost being crushed in the rush of local business owners wanting to buy the club when we were in our death throes.

Well PTID the time has come for Raj to prove he wants a successful football club. No more excuses will be tolorated its a top 7 finish MINIMUM.

I'm sure he like us all wants a successful football club, let's hope our wishes come to fruition next season.

I’d have thought by a good manager meant having a good set up around you covering all aspects of the team.
I dislike this cockeyed system where it’s all broken down into separate departments with in a club… the manager should oversee everything on the playing side, not clerks and owners

Imagine what Cloughie would have thought of this new system

He had a successful FC when we won the POffs, Just saying.

They have been on the cusp of a promotion for a while id say - slowly building away in the background.

They got the manager and recruitment bang on at the start - loan signings bang on too !

i think if king kev gets these 7 players plus loan players spot on - no reason why we cant be winning this league next season. I honestly think he has enough and has proven it so far !

Gateshead are very well run. They sign younger players with the opportunity of selling them on to bigger clubs and making good money to run the team.

So this year they have sold Lofthouse to Barnsley and Wearne to MK. Obviously they got cash for Williamson going to MK as manager, befire he took Wearne later.

In the summer they sold Campbell to Crawley.

Before that Langstaff and Scott went to Notts County.

This has been the structure for years, before the new owners came in. Along with spending little on players coming in and a lot of good young loan players, low ground rental costs they run a great business.

Last night's defeat will make it tough for them to get through the play offs but hopefully they can.

Agree totally Eiphos If you think about it we will only be around 10 points adrift of the playoffs if we beat Dorking. That's obviously 3 wins and a draw...We should have made the playoffs this season despite a crap team. If it wasn't for a few stupid late mistakes in games we would have. So with a better more organised team we will definitely be top 7 and hopefully top. It just goes to show how crap this league is when piss poor teams have made the playoffs. The likes of Altrincham Halifax Aldershot & Solihull should be nowhere near top 7 in a decent league but they are and that alone proves this league is well and truly winnable

Totally agree Snailwood2. But why will lasts night result make it hard to get through the playoffs

annoying they only allow 5 subs on the bench in this league--another example of how tinpot we are these days

We only signed about 4 or 5 Scottish players we cant keep using them as an excuse. As for crippled the club, the clubs some have left for also seem to be able to afford them.

The thing is the rest of the league can also say we are only 10 points off the play offs who is to say they wont invest better than us? Im not sure where all this optimism is coming from about all of a sudden signing better players, since Phillips has arrived in the main we have signed utter shite.

We all have opinions Billy and sometimes we disagree but time will supply the answer

More than 4 or 5 Scottish players to be fair - Niang, Murray, Hamilton, Patterson, Hastie? Sylla, Letheren off the top of my head, and most of them will have had a pay off to leave or we'll be at least part paying them while out on loan so quite a burden really.
As for signings since Phillips arrived there's only been the 2 CBs the rest are all loanees and thankfully so.
Best opportunity since DC left for us to have a successful close season and preparation for the new season, will we make the most of it or flop again is the question. Another 6 or 7 in and a couple of season long loanees would suggest we're hanging onto a fair few we've already got. There'd be 9 to come in with the 2 CBs, Mani D, Joe Grey, Dodds, Mancini, Dixon , Stephenson, Wallace. That's 18 so guessing Fergy will get an offer maybe Crawford for a squad of 20.

Yeah but some of them scottish players have moved on or will be now. Apparently featherstone retiring and cooke going, if the standard of loans are anything to go by we are in the shit next season hopefully they were desperation signings.

Of course and its great some have optimism for next season i just personally cant see things changing one jot. Who is to say we even hold on to manni d?

If we dont hold onto Mani D then we will get a really good price for him - we then need to go out and get his replacement. Which i think we will. I never thought we would hold onto Umerah. We then signed this lad from Halifax whom wasnt exactly a NL household name as such. So i think if we do loose him we in safe hands to find both their replacements as we have done before - plus KP will know a goal scorer when he sees one.

Billy… as me and the wife are climbing up the gangplank onto our round the world cruise on a sea which can be a bit ‘temperamental ’…and I see you pull up on the quayside in your Mankini, Ray-Ban sunglasses and designer luggage….. I’m disembarking and heading for a hostel in Filey…cos you’ll jinx it.

The Chairman never says no to me because I shop at home bargains.

But that's bollocks, we've borrowed from the pawn shop definitely but Parkes and Waterfall are hardly Poundland are they and I don't know of any other permanent signings since he arrived?

KP has already said he doesn’t want any more short-term loan deals. Good - we’ve had loads this season trying to paper over the cracks caused by injuries and none of them came off.

really doubt we would have taken on any of those loanees at the beginning of the season. do not think they were despiration ones but big gambles that did not come off. if they had we could have sneeked into the play offs but this is pools we are on about where mostly if anything can go wrong it will for us.

good job they do as with our small depleated squad the season might have been worse. bigger the allowed bench the more it favours teams with the most money to splash which is a reason challinor has got a side promoted because of the size of their squad who could all play decent games when called upon.

did they have historic debts to cover though like us and most relegated teams from the league have. might be a big reason why suger daddies pick random unheard of teams to splash the cash on because they have little or nothing to pay off before they start.