Hartlepool United Football Club - History
2006-07 Season
2nd, promoted from League Two
League Cup: 2nd round; Hull City a. lost 3-2 on penalties.
FA Cup: 2nd round; Macclesfield Town a. 1-2
JP Trophy: 2nd round; Doncaster Rovers h. 1-3
Highlight:
3-0 win at Darlington, 25/3/07
Low Spot:
0-3 home defeat to Shrewsbury Town, 16/9/06
Good:
Richie Humphreys
Converted left back who stills looks happiest bombing forward. Great crossing ability, quality set pieces and a fierce shot mean he is a formidable force coming forward.
Michael Nelson
Dominating centre half who has now completed four years of solid service with the club. Should form an effective barrier with Ben Clark again next season in the higher standard.
In Brief:
Only 2 points were gained in the opening 5 games but five successive wins in September pointed to a brighter future.
October brought a reversal of fortune with no victories and when the club lost at home to Barnet at the beginning of November they were languishing in 16th place.
From here, however, the club enjoyed a remarkable run of form. The next nine games were won, eight without conceding a goal, and the club remained unbeaten in 23 games before losing again to Barnet at the start of April.
Promotion was all but assured by this stage and only a weak finish when only 1 point came from the last 3 games denied Hartlepool the championship.
Few people connected with the club would have been unduly bothered by that after the whirlwind second half to the season had brought such an emphatic promotion.
It is possible that there is no set of supporters in England who have less right to respond when taunted about who they are or when informed that they're not very good than Hartlepool United's, Rochdale being a possible exception.
Very young football followers might find this statement surprising given the fact that the club were only minutes away from a place in the Football League Championship at the end of last season but they must understand that the last three years represent the clubs' "golden era".
Todays' Hartlepool United Football Club evolved out of the amateur West Hartlepool club which had enjoyed success around the turn of the twentieth century.
Formed in 1908 and known until 1968 as Hartlepools United the new professional club continued to enjoy local success and joined the football league as original members of division three north in 1921.
Since then the club has retained its' league status but offered its' followers very little in the way of success or excitement.
Hartlepools became a fourth division side when the north and south third divisions merged in 1958 and stayed there until finally winning promotion in 1968.
Unfortunately the club, in its first season as Hartlepool, was relegated back to the fourth division immediately and stayed in the leagues' basement, generally struggling, until 1991 when promotion to the third divsion was again achieved.
By now the club was called Hartlepool United, having adopted this name in 1977.
Their stay in England's third tier was a little longer this time, lasting three seasons before another relegation was suffered.
After nine seasons languishing in the leagues' bottom division, the club was promoted in 2003 and will be hoping that they can consolidate a future outside the bottom division after last seasons' play off adventure.
The clubs' generally miserable league form has hardly been compensated for by any heroics in the cups either.
The Monkey Hangers, as the clubs fans somewhat bizarrely tag themselves, have never been beyond the fourth round of the FA Cup and reached the fourth round of the League Cup once in 1975.
Typically, their one League Cup "run" was hardly the most glamorous. In fact the second round tie with Bournemouth FCwhich required three replays was more suited to bankruptting the club than swelling its' coffers.
At least the fourth round provided financial consolation, a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa at Victoria Park being followed by a 6-1 defeat at Villa Park.
The clubs' undoubted claim to fame lies in introducing Brian Clough into management in 1965.
Perhaps if Clough hadn't been lured away to Derby County then it might have been Hartlepool going on to win league and European titles in the seventies, alas we shall never know.
Clough left the club equipped to gain promotion without him the following season but his successors were unable to continue taking the club forward.
Instead perhaps its' biggest "feat" is in having made by far the most applications for re-election to the old fourth division.
At least all eleven, yes count them, eleven, were successful, however.
|
