By Albatross
April 24 2003

There's not been much celebration yet - but Hartlepool United will be playing in Division 2 next season. It's time to a look back to the last time we were there - and also to look ahead at some of the issues that we may have to face come August. May 7th, 1994. That date is the last time Pools played a match as a Division 2 club. After a long, hard season it was somehow appropriate that our final game of the season should see us suffer our heaviest defeat; Plymouth, needing a win to be in with a chance of Promotion, whipped us 8-1 with Paul Dalton providing Poolies with a glimpse of happier times.

The club was on the brink of disaster, and a look at some of the players used that season shows what a state we were in - on and off the pitch. Names like Tony Skedd, Denny Ingram, and Nicky Peverell were in the side: Keith Houchen had signed from his hospital bed after a Hernia operation, we took Dave Burgess on loan from Carlisle, where he couldn't even get in the team of a side a division below us, and at one point we suffered from a transfer embargo. These were the final dark days of Garry Gibson still in control - Harold Hornsey was shortly to take over - and Viv Busby and John MacPhail doing their best with very meagre resources. We conceded four or more goals no less than seven times - four of them at home; and had been thrashed 5-0 at Stockport (though I still reckon at least three of them were offside) and 7-0 at Rotherham.

Now though, after a break of nine seasons, we're back. And how times have changed.....

You only have to look at the ground to see how much Hartlepool United have moved on as a club. Nine years ago, the "Director's Box" was an area of the recently (and unpopularly) seated Rink End with a wooden fence round it; Away fans were being put in the uncovered Town End terrace and many who used to stand on the Rink had ended up on the Mill House. On the other side from them was.... nothing. A fence, a large gap where there should have been a new stand appearing before our eyes, and then out towards the docks. Oh, and the pitch was a quagmire for most of the season due to the failed drains.

We go back with a ground that is tidy and respectable, if not outstanding. The Cyril Knowles stand looks smart - and has proper hospitality boxes, the Town End has been re-done and handed over to the home fans, and the pitch now stands comparison with any in the league and even surpasses the ones at some Premiership grounds.

Behind the scenes Pools have also become a lot more professional. A lot of credit for this has to go to Harold Hornsey: when he finally took over from the hated Gibson he worked long and hard, spent considerable sums of his own money, got us to the stage where we were at least stable - for the first time in many years - and improved the ground no end by finally building the long-promised (by Gibson) Cyril Knowles Stand, and then covering and upgrading the Town End and making it the Home End. He also didn't make the mistake of certain club owners of promising what he couldn't deliver: fan he may be, but he also kept his business head on. IOR have continued and built on his work, and overall we are being run a lot more professionally than at any time in living memory. While some things are still not to everyone's satisfaction, no-one can deny that things have improved steadily over the last few years.

The improvements on the pitch have also been considerable. Money has been found to pay the likes of Mark Tinkler, Ritchie Humphreys, Gordon Watson and others - the players who have made a real difference, that we simply couldn't afford (or at least not for long) ten years ago. The standard of football we are playing is generally a lot higher - certainly better than we played when we last won promotion, or even in the season that followed. With more foreign stars, we are now seeing players that would have been regulars in Division 1 a few years back plying their trade at lower levels - and Pools have made sure that they have not been left behind on that front over the last 3-4 years.

The Division itself has also changed since last time we were there. Possibly the only teams in it that would have regarded themselves as "big clubs" in 1994 were Bradford, Fulham and Burnley - all clubs that have had better times before and since that season, but are hardly massive. Next season we are guaranteed to be meeting Sheffield Wednesday, and possibly other teams that have been in the Premiership in the past in Swindon, Barnsley, and QPR.

So what can we expect next season? Well, with a number of ambitious clubs with bigger fanbases, promotion would be a miracle - and even a playoff spot would be a huge achievement. Realistically, we're going to be hoping for mid-table if we strengthen the side in the right areas. The next question is, what will that do for the attendances. We've had four seasons of (relative) success, and the crowds have grown accordingly - maybe not as fast as Ken Hodcroft and others would like, but I don't think that they can complain too much; after all, we started from a position of being underachievers for most of the previous 40 years. The core support has grown somewhat, but I still reckon it's not much above 3000. If we're not playing well, or even simply not challenging at the right end of the table, then we are likely to see the number of home fans drop from this season's levels. On the plus side, a number of teams should be looking to fill the Rink End next year, compared to this season where few teams have even made it half full.

This has serious implications for the club with the Salary Cap coming in. If attendances do drop, then there's less income; less income means less to spend on wages - and IOR will not be allowed to simply inject funds to meet a shortfall in that area. This has probably had a big influence on the decision to let Gordon Simms and the four final-year scholars go; and I'll be surprised if there isn't something of a cull over the close season with the likes of Sharp, Bass, Easter and others not offered new deals. Pools have to strike a balance between signing the quality we'll need to compete in Div2 and staying within the rules - so don't be surprised if we're looking at a smaller squad, but with better-paid, higher quality players as part of it.

In the meantime, despite the anticlimax of recent games this Saturday will be our last chance of the season to celebrate promotion at a home game. Shrewsbury are talking about bringing a big following as they struggle to stay in the league (full preview tomorrow), so let's look for a big turnout of Poolies and create a great atmosphere.