The Poolie Bunker

Can't find any mention of this. Was looking on live scores fixtures the week ahead and amazed to see we are at home 3pm on Tuesday this week. Can't hear the announcenets too well in the Neale Cooper stand but heard no mention of this.

Hidden away on the club website just before a preview of yesterday. Seems it is £10 a ticket for adults and cheaper taking under 14s in,

Communication is not too great at the club. Excellent team building but some publicity for these low level competitions would surely help on the back of the crowd yesterday.

https://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/national-league-cup-fixtures-confirmed/

National League Cup fixtures confirmed
Hartlepool United has been drawn in Group C of the 2026/27 National League Cup.

Lee Clark’s side will host Premier League 2 (PL2) opposition from Middlesbrough, Everton, Newcastle United and Leeds United at Victoria Park as Pools bid to secure one of the two quarter-final places available from Group C.

Pools’ National League Cup campaign gets under way on Tuesday 11th August, when Middlesbrough PL2 visit Victoria Park for a 3.00pm kick-off as part of the Club’s Family Fun Day, with a range of activities and entertainment planned for supporters ahead of kick-off.

Everton PL2 visit Victoria Park on Tuesday 8th September (7.00pm), followed by Newcastle United PL2 on Tuesday 13th October (7.00pm) and Leeds United PL2 on Tuesday 3rd November (7.00pm).

The top two teams in Group C will progress to the quarter-finals, with the knockout stages taking place in January, February and March 2027.

Ticket information for all four fixtures will be announced in due course.

Pools’ Group Stage Fixtures
Tuesday 11th August 2026 (3.00pm)
Hartlepool United v Middlesbrough PL2

Tuesday 8th September 2026 (7.00pm)
Hartlepool United v Everton PL2

Tuesday 13th October 2026 (7.00pm)
Hartlepool United v Newcastle United PL2

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 (7.00pm)
Hartlepool United v Leeds United PL2

National League Cup – Group C

National League

Boreham Wood

Hartlepool United

Solihull Moors

Tamworth

Premier League 2

Middlesbrough PL2

Everton PL2

Newcastle United PL2

Leeds United PL2

Lee Clark was asked about it and said Pools had entered it so the new U-21 side could get some competitive games.
He did mention that he'd have to field a few first teamers to comply with the rules, but that turned into a bit of a farce last season, according to this BBC report from last October:

"The National League Cup's rules force clubs to start a certain number of players in the competition that play for them in the league.
That has led to clubs such as Rochdale and Forest Green Rovers making multiple substitutions in the opening minutes of matches.
The competition is said to make clubs start a minimum of four players in National League Cup matches that started for teams in either their previous league match, or start in the one that follows on from that particular National League Cup match.
On Tuesday, Rochdale made two first-minute substitutions during their 2-0 defeat to Manchester United's under-21s"

Can't find anything that says those rules have been changed for this season.

I'd much rather we played in competitions like these intending to win them rather than playing in them to "get them out of way" which seems to have been the case in previous seasons.

Why have we entered the competion if there is no intention of taking it seriously? It is not compulsory and we have not bothered with it in previous season. Fair enough if we are going to have go. We have quite a big squad so I thought the reason for entering was to give the fringe players a run out.

exactly. if we stay injury free{ miracles do happen} we need games to keep the squad players sharp. if we have a normal season on that front then the competition might become a nuisance with early subs like its been said.

There's 29 players in the squad at the minute.

3 of them are keepers, 4 are first year professionals, 3 are young lads out on loan (but they'll be able to play in the NL Cup) and 2 (Charman and Hampson) are injured.

Bear in mind the first team squad for every league game is 17 players and in the modern game they do all feature at some point (apart from the substitute keeper) and I can see why Clark is keen to test the U-21s in this competition, including Charlie Penman, who came in from Brighton but is only 19.

46 league games, FA Cup and FA Trophy - that's enough for our main men to be going on with.

Right, so we have entered the competition for the benefit of the youngsters. Ok at least we are all on the same page now.

does anybody know if there will be a programme?

know it will not be on DAZN but will there be a live stream done even if its by our opponents which is more likely.

Lee Clark won't be in the dugout for today's game against Boro's PL2 side (whatever that is) - instead Pools' Academy Manager Alex Cross will be in charge. That's really selling the competition to the fans

There's a stupidly long screed about the game on the OS. The nub of what Cross says is: "Some Academy players will be involved on Tuesday alongside our first-year professionals and younger members of the First-Team squad. It’s a brilliant opportunity for everybody selected, particularly the Under-21 players. They will have the chance to show what they can do in a competitive environment and take another step towards senior football. The younger lads can learn from players who have experience of the senior game."

Oi Landon! Pay whatever it takes to get Simmo back - please!

From what I read Simmo is more than happy at Spennymoor as the club secretary, what sort of salary would a media manager be on at a N.L. club.

we would certainly have to pay over the odds for him to come back to what looks like a step down the career ladder for him. its not as if nobody else can do the job if the right money is being offered. possibly its not and the reason the job has not been filled yet.

He’s been made redundant hasn’t he?

Where did you get that from?

8 mins gone 0-2 down

Looks like our foray into the National League Cup will be short lived. Any news on how many first teamers are in the line up?

Official X says four first teamers were in the starting 11 but were subbed after a minute. Our young lads seem to be getting a good hiding.

All 4 First team players were substituted off in the 1st minute.

Pools make 4 early changes:

⏪️Hunter, Ilunga, Harris, Popov
⏩️Thornton, Foreman, Worth, Smith

Illunga, Harris, Popov and Hunter all started and were all substituted after 2 minutes.
The game is listed on BBC Sports fixtures today- so you can see the score and lineups.

Reminds me of when we played Everton U-23's in the Papa John's and got beat 6-0 at home...

At least it's only the kids who might get a football lesson today.

Why have we entered the competition if we aren’t giving squad players game time? Seems a bit of a piss take subbing the first team players off. I think there needs to be a rule that they must play a half at least. Fans have paid £10 to watch this.

So our recently created U21 side, most of whom are either on Youth Contracts, or have been newly recruited in the summer, are being beaten by the established U21 team of a Club 3 divisions above us and who are one of the favourites for promotion. Understandable, right?

Nope, the twitter feed is full of smart arses calling the keeper shite for the goals conceded (but they don’t say anything on the tweets reporting where Fisher made a great save. There is even one criticising Hunter “jokingly”. It does my head in, it’s so toxic and negative.

The club made it quite clear in advance that we were only in the competition to play the U21 players. I guess if the rule was that the 4 first team players needed to play a full half, then we wouldn’t have entered the competition.

It was made clear that that would be happening. Why would you want a rule which risks some of our first team players getting injured in a meaningless game?

Oh my God get him back already!

There is a live stream, all National League Cup games are free to watch, I had it up but couldn’t post the link, i can’t find the site again.

7-0 now

0-8

Thought it would be a good competition for us to play first team players to keep them match fit. Our under 21s already play matches so why do they need this competition? It can’t be good for them getting beaten like this.

0-9 70 mins

The U21s don’t already play matches, the team was only established this summer, and don’t play in a league.

Pointless to risk injury of any first team players in a stupid competition like this, the final isn’t even played at a neutral ground, just at one of the home grounds of the teams competing.

The first team have enough games, especially with the long cup runs we will no doubt have this year…

Jeezus, glad I didn't shell out for that. What's the crowd?

I didn’t know that. Are they not playing any matches all season then apart from this daft competition? We used to play on a Saturday morning against similar level teams.

I do agree but glad there isn’t a rule saying the players have to play 45 mins, I do think players like mckeown, sheron and bondo could have used this game for fitness though.

I guess that they might organise some friendlies. Darcy, Foreman and Donaldson are out on loan which ensures them regular game time, the youth team players can still play academy games, but the rest don’t have anything regular.

I know it is only one game but I can't see what good it will do our kids to be chasing shadows. They must be punch drunk by now.
I hope the club know what they're doing because the danger is our youngsters might not be able or even willing to be exposed to opposition of a far superior nature.
I'm all for giving them game time which stretches them and gives them valuable experience but this, so far, doesn't appear healthy to me ( in footballing terms that is).
I reckon there just maybe a few dads and grandads thinking along the same lines right now.

US Them

5% Ball possession 95%

6 Total shots 26

1 Shots on target 15

0 Corner kicks 7

Yep a right battering.

final score 0 - 10

Wondering if it was any benefit to the Boro lads having such a walk over.

wonder if LC might try and get a couple of the Boro lads in on loan

We've just shipped 10 against a local rival. Kids or not, that's ammunition.

If they continue with this same strategy, these young lads are still to face Everton U21, Leeds U21, Newcastle U21, before games vs Tamworth & Boreham Wood. Ouch.

Surely, they could've just sorted them some decent behind closed doors friendlies vs an array of local semi-professional clubs to cut their teeth!

Eh? Ammunition for what?

There is no chance that anyone who plays more than 1 minute in any of these games will be starting against Tamworth or Boreham Wood.

I agree it was a bad decision to agree to play in this competition, and it may actually hamper our kids’ development, but it will have absolutely 0 impact on the first team.

Is there a rule saying we have to field at least some of the 1st team squad hence the 1st minute substitutions?

It's easy to be wise after the event, but Pools are well and truly between a rock and a hard place now.

They can't withdraw from the competition, so the choices are either exposing the U-21s to more one-sided hammerings or playing some of the first-team squad just to save face.

Disappointed I’d imagine.

Whatever plonker came up with the idea of using this as a way for our brand new academy to gain experience should give their flipping head a shake. I bet the young lads are dreading playing Newcastle U21s now - and I bet the four first team lads that will have to travel to Everton midweek to play for a minute then watch another stuffing will be a bit miffed too.

The competition was set up so that proper National league first teams could see how they compare to U21 teams from a higher level - Playing National league youngsters against Championship/Premiership youngsters serves no purpose whatsoever.

By the reports Pools substituted their mandatory first team players Popov, Harris, Ilunga and Hunter during the game, not sure how long they actually were on the field for, did they actually break sweat ?

A bit like giving a newly qualified teenage driver a Ferrari and wondering why he drove into the wall within 90 minutes.