SORRY, I HOPE THERE IS NO BIG REUNION
IT TOOK my beloved Hartlepool United four years to get out of the National League so you can understand why I’m reluctant to go back.
To be honest, it’s been another of those ‘don’t watch but don’t look away’ seasons for us in League Two. Heading into the weekend we were third bottom, but had played a couple more games than the team directly below us, Crawley.
It looks as if it will go right to the wire, but if after eight or nine games this season you had said to Hartlepool fans that we would have a chance of staying in the Football League in the run-in, most would have taken it. We started so horrifically and looked to have a poor squad, so it was hard to see where the wins would come from. To still be in the mix is something of an achievement, but I just hope it doesn’t go to the last game. We’re away to Stockport
and that’s Dave Challinor country. Dave took us back into the Football League a couple of years ago and I love him and his family, but I don’t want to have to rely on a favour from DC to keep us in the EFL. His focus will purely be on getting Stockport up, and rightly so.
I’m president and a minority shareholder at Pools and even though we made some good memories in the National League before, I don’t want to go back – it’s such a hard division to get out of.
Even if Wrexham and Notts County were both to go up this season, you’d still have clubs like Chesterfield, Southend – if they can sort out their financial issues – and Bromley to contend with. There are no guarantees you’ll come back. If the worst comes to the worst and we go down, at least we’ll still have a club to support – and we’ll also have a good idea of what’s in store.