ביקור במועדון הארטליפול יונייטד Hartlepool United

Read all about our visit to Hartlepool United, of the English fourth tier, for their fixture against Accrington Stanley at Victoria Park, Hartlepool.

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Where:

General Info:

Date of Visit: Tuesday, 22.11.16, 19:45
Club Name: Hartlepool United
Nickname: The Pools
Founded: 1898
Stadium: Victoria Park, Hartlepool, Capacity: 7,856
League and Rank: League Two (4th Tier) Rank: 19/24
Official Site

The Visit

A fourth-tier side that has been a fairly regular resident at the bottom in recent years, regarded even by its own fans as mediocre at best. The kind that makes its fans suffer greatly over every goal, let alone a win. We came to see 'Pools, sitting 20th, against 9th-placed Accrington Stanley at their home ground, Victoria Park. By the way, this was the second time we'd seen the Stanleys play. The first time was here, in 2010.

The town of Hartlepool lies on the north-east coast of England, a stone's throw from Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland – in short, lots of better options for watching football, none of which we chose this time. The club, which has existed for 108 years, belongs to a giant trading group from China, but what's really interesting is that, municipally speaking, the club isn't part of England – it's part of the British Virgin Islands. The technical significance of this is mainly financial – Hartlepool's foreign players get significant tax breaks as a result. Bless the English and their nonsense…

We arrived at Victoria Park about an hour and a half before kick-off. We had plenty of time to mingle and get to know the club from the port town, with its special, picturesque ship's wheel crest. We parked our big car on the main road right next to the stadium, with the surprising approval of the parking stewards. It turns out that during a match the whole street serves as a car park for guests, while passers-by use just one lane to drive.

With great ceremony we entered a club where probably very few Israelis had ever set foot, and we were greeted by Mark Burrows, 'Operations Manager' (as he's described on the official website). Mark invited us for a beer on the house and joined us for a short, pleasant chat in the warm pub, which was still empty at that hour. Yes, it was cold even for the most devoted fans… After a while we went down with Mark to the pitch, where we presented him with the plaque and the flag, and everyone was happy. Mark asked the girls staffing the pub to hang up the flag he'd just received on behalf of the club, and it was done before our astonished eyes. What greater honour could there be than seeing the Cinderella emblem flying proudly over the official bar of such a lowly football club…? As a thank you, Mark treated us to five free tickets to the match – and us? We'd done our bit!

Afterwards, we visited the club shop. As usual, it was staffed by the standard retirement-age saleswomen, joined, rather unusually, by a very static security guard from the parking stewards' team outside, presumably guarding the tens of thousands of pounds missing from the club's coffers. After we asked for a mate's name to be printed on one of the shirts we bought, the saleswoman checked the name at least five times – including having me sign the note on which she'd written the letters – before she put the order through.
It might have been better if the club's top brass checked the quality of their players in a similar way, so as not to get dragged into the relegation zone again this season…

After a few more beers, chasers, whisky and so on, the time came for the match to start. The Premier League level we'd got used to the evening before at West Brom vanished like an efficient sporting magic trick, and for long minutes the match developed into a long, drawn-out, cold, chewing-gum bore – just how we like it. But what was particularly disturbing about the whole occasion was the lack of support from the home crowd. It had been a long time since we'd witnessed such a restrained, quiet crowd in England – definitely disappointing. We'll think about whether to come here again! (Only joking.)

The highlight of the match came in the 62nd minute, when a rather bizarre penalty was awarded to the hosts after a ball was lofted into the box and an alleged foul on the player rising to head it. The second penalty in Cinderella history to be filmed live was also missed, but what happened next was more interesting. After the keeper parried the penalty and the chaos that followed in the six-yard box, Nicky Deverdics scored with an impressive overhead kick to put 'Pools 1-0 up.