Hartlepool United: Club history
West Hartlepool Amateur Football Club was the first recorded outfit playing to Association rules in the town from 1881. In 1905 they won the F.A. Amateur Cup, beating Clapton 3-2 at Shepherd’s Bush, London. In 1908 the town’s Rugby Club, whose home was Victoria Ground, folded, and a professional football club was formed to avail itself of the opportunity to take over the ground. Snappily named ‘The Hartlepools United Football Athletic Company Limited’ it adopted the “Hartlepools” bit on the grounds that its aim was to unite the two boroughs of Hartlepool and West Hartlepool. However West Hartlepool Amateur Football Club were having none of it and continued as a separate entity. Slightly bizarrely, with Victoria Ground being in West Hartlepool, Hartlepools United and West Hartlepool Amateur Football Club then played at the same ground until the amateurs folded in 1910. Hartlepools United could now justifiably claim to represent the whole town.Victoria Ground achieved what must surely be a unique feat in the First World War. It was bombed by a Zeppelin and shelled by the Kaiser’s navy. Perhaps it was a German not a French monkey they’d hanged all those years before, and revenge was being sought?
After the War the club played in the Northern Victory League for a season, then the North-East League. In 1921 they were given one of the automatic places in the Football League’s newly formed Division Three North. And there they remained, with little more excitement than the occasional need for re-election, until 1958 when the reorganisation of the Football League saw them into Division Four. They continued there, with even Brian Clough, in his first managerial appointment from 1965-67, unable to get them up. However he and Peter Taylor had sown seeds, and the following season Hartlepools United achieved their first ever promotion, finishing third. They dropped the ‘s’ and ‘United’ and the very next season it was Hartlepool who were….. relegated straight back down. The season after that they were back in the re-election mix once again. And the season after that. And twice more before the Seventies were out. And in the Eighties……. Bitter? Us?
In 1990-91 Hartlepool United (the ‘United’ but not the ‘s’ had been restored in 1977) achieved their second promotion, again in third place. This time they lasted three seasons. During this time they achieved a Football League record of 1,227 minutes without scoring and came close to being wound up.
They must like fiddling with names in Hartlepool. Back in the bottom division again they decided in 1995 that Victoria Ground would be called Victoria Park.
In 1997 the club was bought by Increased Oil Recovery Ltd. In Hartlepool terms the new century has been a bonanza of success. From 2000-2002 under Chris Turner they made the play-offs three years in a row, only to lose out each time. In 2002-03 they looked as if they were going to storm the division. Turner left for Sheffield Wednesday in November but they went an absolute mile ahead. However the massive lead was squandered and Rushden & Diamonds took the title. Although they did finish second and got their third promotion Mike Newell’s contract was not renewed. The following season under Neale Cooper they were in the Second Division play-offs but were knocked out by Bristol City. In 2004-05 they were closing in on a play-off place once again when Cooper walked out. Martin Scott stepped up on a caretaker basis and took them through the Semi-Finals against red hot favourites Tranmere Rovers and on to the Millennium Stadium. They lost out to Sheffield Wednesday in extra time but Scott was rewarded with the manager’s job on a permanent basis.
After all of those years of success, the 2005-06 season was not a good one. After reaching the play-off final, they played the “play-off final loser always has a hangover season” card superbly, with Scott fired for poor results by February, and his successor Paul Stephenson faring even worse, lasting only until the end of the season as the managerial change failed to alter their downward spiral and relegation to League Two was confirmed.
Hartlepool appointed former Bristol City manager Danny Wilson – the man who was City’s manager when Hartlepool were knocked out of the play-offs in 2003-04, but had also been fired after failing to take City one step further. Wilson had also been fired by MK Dons, but he showed his managerial prowess was still there – taking them back to League One in his first season in charge, and in doing so denying his former club MK Dons a chance to do the same.
In their first season back, in 2007-08, they did well enough, without pulling up any trees along the way, finishing mid-table in 15th, and that was followed up by a 19th in the following season. Matters last season (2009-10) got decidedly more squeaky, surviving in 20th place on the final day of the season, and only then on goal difference. Their selection of defender Gary Liddle on Easter Monday saw a long drawn out disciplinary process that saw them deducted points for fielding Liddle whilst suspended. An emotional manager Chris Turner broke down in their post-match press conference, clearly feeling the pressure, and so it was perhaps not too surprising when he resigned early on in the 2010-11 season, pretty much saying that he didn’t think that Hartlepool had the players to stay in League One.
Mick Wadsworth was the man hired to prove Turner wrong, and so he did, with the Durham club finishing a comfortable 16th place at the end of that campaign. Better followed, with a 13th place finish for 2011-12, but during his third season his luck ran out, and with them rock bottom of the table, Wadsworth was shown the door. The change didn’t have much effect as they finished in 23rd place and propped up by a points-deducted Portsmouth. A 17 month reign of Colin Cooper that was followed by a fair bit of dithering with Paul Murray’s seven (SEVEN!) game spell as manager part of a shambolic 2014-15 season that almost saw them drop out of the Football League. The arrival of Ronnie Moore sparked a bit of a houdini act that somehow stopped that happening, but he was also fired two thirds of the way through the 2015-16 season. We then had a year of Craig Hignett before Hartlepool span the wheel again, bringing in the huge experience of Dave Jones – no doubt about his CV, but we’d wonder about how long he’d been out of the game – it’s too early to tell given this fixture finds him just two games into his reign.
Hartlepool United: We’ve Met Before
Previous Results for Yeovil Town First Team vs Hartlepool United
| 03/09/2005 | Away | CCL1 | W | 1-0 | 4572 | Bastianini 68 | |
| 07/01/2006 | Home | CCL1 | W | 2-0 | 5480 | Jevons 26, 60 | |
| 08/12/2007 | Home | CCL1 | W | 3-1 | 4694 | Skiverton 27, Stewart 31, Owusu 77 | |
| 24/03/2008 | Away | CCL1 | L | 0-2 | 3808 | ||
| 06/12/2008 | Away | CCL1 | D | 0-0 | 3393 | ||
| 18/04/2009 | Home | CCL1 | L | 2-3 | 4332 | Tomlin 7, Townsend 57 | |
| 19/12/2009 | Away | CCL1 | D | 1-1 | 2778 | S. Williams 33 | |
| 13/03/2010 | Home | CCL1 | W | 4-0 | 4169 | Tomlin 20, G Williams 38, Own Goal 50, Bowditch 71 | |
| 21/08/2010 | Home | NPL1 | L | 0-2 | 3537 | ||
| 14/12/2010 | Away | FAC2 | L | 2-4 | 1914 | A Williams 18, Upson 31 | |
| 09/04/2011 | Away | NPL1 | L | 1-3 | 2834 | Obika 10 | |
| 26/11/2011 | Away | NPL1 | W | 1-0 | 4604 | N’Gala 25 | |
| 24/03/2012 | Home | NPL1 | L | 1-0 | 4033 | ||
| 10/11/2012 | Home | NPL1 | W | 1-0 | 3095 | Edwards 7 | |
| 09/03/2013 | Away | FL2 | D | 0-0 | 3633 | ||
| 26/09/2015 | Home | FL2 | L | 1-2 | 3078 | Bird 37 | |
| 13/02/2016 | Away | FL2 | L | 1-2 | 3923 | Zoko 90 | |
| 10/09/2016 | Home | EFL2 | L | 1-2 | 2749 | Butcher 56 | |
| 04/02/2017 | Away | EFL2 | D | 1-1 | 3410 | Dolan 69 | |
| 05/10/2019 | Away | NLP | L | 1-2 | Murphy 90+1 | ||
| 12/11/2019 | Home | FAC1 | L | 1-4 | D’Ath 3 | ||
| 18/01/2020 | Home | NLP | D | 2-2 | Worthington 23, Lee 42 | ||
| 21/11/2020 | Home | NLP | L | 1-3 | Quigley 45+1 | ||
| 20/02/2021 | Away | NLP | L | 1-2 | Knowles 54 | ||
| 10/08/2024 | Home | NLP | L | 0-1 | |||
Results Summary For Yeovil Town First Team vs Hartlepool United
| Home | Away | Overall | ||||||||||||
| W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A |
| 4 | 1 | 8 | 18 | 19 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 17 | 6 | 5 | 14 | 28 | 36 |
Hartlepool United: Club Statistics
| 31/08/2024 | Braintree Town | Home | NLP | D | 0-0 | 3516 | ||
| 07/09/2024 | FC Halifax Town | Home | NLP | D | 0-0 | 4012 | ||
| 10/09/2024 | Boston United | Away | NLP | W | 2-1 | 1925 | Gomez Mancini 53, Dieseruvwe 61 | |
| 14/09/2024 | Ebbsfleet United | Away | NLP | L | 0-1 | 1424 | ||
| 21/09/2024 | Dagenham & Redbridge | Home | NLP | L | 0-1 | 3507 | ||
| 24/09/2024 | Rochdale | Home | NLP | L | 0-3 | 3133 | ||
| 28/09/2024 | Forest Green Rovers | Away | NLP | L | 0-1 | 1764 | ||
| 05/10/2024 | Sutton United | Home | NLP | W | 4-3 | 3408 | Charman 55, Dieseruvwe 57, 71, 85 | |
| 12/10/2024 | Brackley Town | Home | FAC4Q | D | 1-1 | 2021 | Campbell 87 | |
| 15/10/2024 | Brackley Town | Away | FAC4QR | L | 1-4 | 755 | Dieseruvwe 30 | |
| 19/10/2024 | Maidenhead United | Away | NLP | D | 1-1 | 1305 | Campbell 68 | |
| 23/10/2024 | Altrincham | Away | NLP | D | 1-1 | 1463 | Sheron 5 | |
| 26/10/2024 | Aldershot Town | Home | NLP | W | 2-0 | 3356 | Dieseruvwe 5, 54 | |
| 09/11/2024 | York City | Away | NLP | L | 3-5 | 7654 | Ferguson 50, Charman 87, Dieseruvwe 90+6 | |
| 16/11/2024 | Eastleigh | Home | NLP | D | 0-0 | 3655 | ||
| 23/11/2024 | Solihull Moors | Away | NLP | W | 4-3 | 952 | Campbell 17, Grey 39, 60, Dieseruvwe 65 | |
| 26/11/2024 | AFC Fylde | Home | NLP | W | 2-0 | 2934 | Parkes 70, Madine 88 | |
| 30/11/2024 | Barnet | Home | NLP | D | 0-0 | 3604 | ||
| 07/12/2024 | Tamworth | Home | FAT3 | L | 1-1 | 1312 | Madine 69 (Tamworth won 3-0 on penalties) | |
| 14/12/2024 | Southend United | Away | NLP | D | 0-0 | 6877 |
CURRENT LEAGUE SEQUENCE STATISTICS
| Games Without A Win: | 2 | Games Without A Home Win: | 1 | |
| Games Without An Away Win: | 1 | Games Without Defeat: | 5 | |
| Games Without A Home Defeat: | 5 | Games Without An Away Defeat: | 2 | |
| Games Without A Draw: | 0 | Games Without A Score Draw: | 7 | |
| Games Without A No-Score Draw: | 0 | Games Without Scoring: | 2 | |
| Games Without Conceding: | 2 | Home Results Sequence: | WWWDWD | |
| Away Results Sequence: | WDDLWD | Overall Results Sequence: | LWWWDD |
ATTENDANCE STATISTICS
Highest League Attendance: 4,452 – vs Southend United, 17/08/24
Lowest League Attendance: 2,934 – vs AFC Fylde – 26/11/24
Average League Home Attendance: 3,563
Hartlepool United: Club Information
Victoria Park
Clarence Rd
Hartlepool
TS24 8BZ
Click for map.
What 3 Words: //w3w.co/statue.trade.ozone
Telephone Number: 01429 272 58
Fax: 01429 863 007
Interim Chief Executive: Raj Singh
Honorary President: Jeff Stelling
Head of Football Operations: Joe Monks
Operations Manager: Kelly Clarkson
Safety Officer: Carl Broughton
Media & Communications Officer: Josh Youll
Team Manager: Lennie Lawrence
Capacity: 7865
Seated: 4180
Record Attendance: 17,426 v Manchester United, F.A. Cup R3, 05/01/1957
Home kit: shirt blue and white stripes, shorts blue, socks white
Nickname: Pools (though colloquially The Monkey Hangers is possibly more popular, at least with away fans!)
Programme: £3.00
Ticketing
Tickets have been on sale for this one since the start of October, presumably to give travelling fans to make plans for Christmas shopping in Hartlepool. You can buy tickets – HERE.
Anyone who has visited Victoria Park will recall the Hartlepool Cable Services Stand, also known as The Rink End, which is an unallocated, all-seated stand that has a maximum capacity 800. There is no terraced area available for away supporters. There are space for seven wheelchair users (plus carers) within the stand. Wheelchair entry for away fans is on the West Stand through the car park (Acland Homes Stand side).
The stand is located on Clarence Road and the turnstiles are adjacent to the main office building, ticket office and shop.
Tickets
Tickets are charged at the following prices:
- Adult £22
- Concessions £16 (Over 65s, Students, Armed Forces, 18-21s)
- Under 18 £12
- Under 14 £6
- Under 5 FOC when purchased with a full paying adult
- Hospitality – £48 / £69 – depending on your preference of Victoria Park Lounge or Maidens Lounge there are options to purchase too.
*Ambulant Disabled/Wheelchair tickets are sold at the relevant category as above and a free companion ticket will be issued for those in receipt of Higher Rate Disability Allowance or Enhanced PIP (must be shown).
*Under 14s will not be allowed entry to The Prestige Group Stadium without an adult.
*Tickets are issued electronically as standard. There will be a £1 additional charge for paper tickets (including postage) and this should be chosen as your delivery method at checkout.
The Club Ticket Office is open from 10am to kick-off on a match day
Please be advised that we may ask for ID for concessions when they reach the turnstiles. It’s not always easy to gauge how old somebody is, so if you are stopped please don’t take offence and be prepared if you look older/younger than your age. We will always ask for Student and Veteran ID so please make sure you carry this with you.
If you are unable to provide the relevant ID when stopped you may be required to pay adult price.
Under 5s can attend for free when accompanied by a full paying adult but they will require a ticket so please ensure you order this along with the rest of your party.
Turnstiles will open 90 minutes before kick off.
You can contact the Ticket Office on 01429 272584 (option 2) or email tickets@hartlepoolunited.co.uk.
Official Away Travel
The Green & White Supporters’ Club is running away travel to Hartlepool United on Saturday 21st December, 3p.m. kick-off.
Details are as follows:
Members: Adults – £52, Concessions – £50
Non-Members: Adults – £55, Concessions – £53
Coach departs Huish Park: 6.00am
To book, call Paul Hadlow on 07736 044570.
If you are getting in touch by email, please make it clear which match you are booking for and that you give your full name, the names of people that are travelling and a contact telephone number.
You may be asked to pay a £5 deposit to reserve your seat.
Hartlepool United: Directions To The Ground
By anyone’s estimate, the distance between Yeovil and Hartlepool is a long way. The good thing (such as it is) is that Victoria Park has not moved since it opened in 1908 – so if you’ve been before there’s a good chance it will be in a familiar spot.
By Road
From the South:
We’ll presume that the sort of dedicated lunatics heading to Victoria Park will be the types who have already done the trip before, or places like Darlington, and will remember how to get that far on the A1(M). For the details as you close in on your destination: exit the A1(M) at Junction 60, taking the A689 eastwards the 16 miles to Hartlepool. This is mostly dual carriageway, with two sections of normal road.As you come into the outskirts of the town you’ll meet a roundabout by the Owton Lodge pub. Keep on the A689 (signposted ‘Town Centre’) and follow Town Centre signs for another 2.8 miles over two more roundabouts. At the traffic lights just past the Blacksmiths Arms (on your left), go straight on. At the next traffic lights go straight on again. This takes you over the bridge into the marina complex. Keep straight on again at the roundabout and into Marina Way. This is the area for the Jackson’s Wharf parking (see below). To get to the ground itself continue to the next roundabout and turn left (signposted ‘The North A179, A1048’). Turn left at the lights into Clarence Road and you’ll see the stadium.
Alternatively you can leave the A1(M) at Junction 49, taking the A168 across to Thirsk where you pick up the A19. This is a more direct route and dual carriageway all the way, though whether quicker or not in practice we can’t say. Probably depends on the amount of traffic you hit as the road slices through the Middlesbrough / Stockton-on-Tees conurbation. The A19 meets the A689 about 7 miles out of Hartlepool. Go east on the A689 for Hartlepool and when you reach the outskirts it’s the same directions as above.
From the North:
If you live even further North than Hartlepool, God help you.
Parking
There is a limited number of matchday parking spaces at the stadium though these are booked on a first come, first served basis. There is also a car park behind the Acland Homes (Neale Cooper) Stand and street parking around Raby Road.
Be aware that Clarence Road is closed off to general traffic 2 hours prior to kick off. For car park and disabled spaces please use North entrance (Middleton Road).
Jackson’s Wharf – The Highlight, Hartlepool TS24 0XN – Jackson’s Wharf, part of the marina complex, has free parking and is a few minutes walk from the stadium.
Hartlepool Transport Interchange – Lynn Street Hartlepool TS24 7ED
125 long-stay spaces, 7 disabled spaces. Prices: 1–2hrs – £1.60, 3hrs £2.10, 10hrs – £2.60, 24hrs £5 .70.
Middleton Grange Shopping Centre – Victoria Rd, Hartlepool TS24 7RZ
A ten-minute walk to the ground with over 900 spaces available. Up to five hours of parking will not cost you more than £3.60, but there’s lots of different prices for different locations – see here. Be aware, this car park closes at 6.30pm on a Saturday if you are…err…sticking around in Hartlepool.
Near to the Millhouse Pub (TS24 8AP ) off Raby Road is a car park which charges £3 on matchdays. Otherwise, there is some street parking albeit a bit of a distance away, as a residents-only parking scheme is in operation on matchdays around the ground.
Do not park in the nearby Asda car park. They have a clamping policy for those they deem not to be genuine customers.
By Rail
Almost all rail journeys to and from Hartlepool and anywhere seem to require a change at Thornaby (Stockton-on-Tees), with the very occasional option of a through train to / from Darlington.
The Railway Station is about half a mile by foot, thus ten minutes walk, to the ground. Exit the station onto Church Street and turn right into Church Square. Follow the road out of Church Square and you’ll already be able to see the floodlights. Cross over the A179 and bear right into Clarence Road. That’s it.
By Taxi
There are a number of taxi ranks around Hartlepool. Alternatively a selection of taxi firms based in Hartlepool can be found here.
Web Sites
Hartlepool United Official Site
Hartlepool United Official Twitter/X Account
The Poolie Bunker – some kind of internet forum thing
Hartlepool United Supporters’ Trust – self-explanatory
Local Press
Hartlepool Life – a publication about life in Hartlepool, one presumes
Hartlepool United: Food & Drink
General
The Marina area, a few minutes walk from Victoria Park, has a number of rather sterile fast food outlets, restaurants and bars, although Jackson’s Wharf is worth a try. Alternatively five minutes along Clarence Road will bring you to the town centre. Church Street and Church Square (by the Railway Station) have a load of pubs and bars cheek by jowl, with more in the immediate side streets. A couple have been listed below. Probably the very closest pub to the ground is the Millhouse Inn but as it is at the home end there doesn’t seem a lot of point trying to squeeze in with myriads of Pools fans waiting to be served.
The brewery in Hartlepool is Camerons: The Lion Brewery. Founded in 1865, things looked bleak between the Seventies and Nineties when it was bought and sold a total of four times by large brewers. Thankfully in 2002 the other excellent brewery based in Hartlepool, Castle Eden, bought the Lion Brewery and combined production of its own beers and Cameron’s on the one site. There’s been some streamlining of brands since, with a few beers sadly lost, however at least it’s back in independent hands and the future looks reasonably rosy. Under the Camerons label three beers are produced all year round in both cask and keg form, of which Strongarm is probably the best known. There’s also Banner Bitter and Long Leg solely in cask form. From the Castle Eden stable Castle Eden Ale and Nimmo’s XXXX have been maintained, as has that label’s range of four seasonal ales. The Castle Eden Inn, some miles outside Hartlepool, where it all began in 1826, now only stocks one Castle Eden beer on an occasional basis.
Club Bar
The Victoria Suite near the away turnstiles is for members only. However the Centenary Bar situated on Clarence Road by the Cyril Knowles Stand and the main club offices, welcomes visiting fans both before and after matches. We’ve also had no problems getting into the Corner Flag, which is their Supporters Club bar, although there is a small charge for entry. There is a bar facility inside the away end – but please not that it is card payment only in there.
Inside the ground there is a small bar serving a limited range and food buying facilities.
Local Pubs
We’ll be honest, there’s not a huge amount to get excited about in monkey hanger land. So we’re going for quality over quantity – but in the context of it……you get the idea!
Jackson’s Wharf: Just a few minutes walk from the away end in the marina development, but has been popular with home fans as well as visitors. Does a wide range of drinks including some real ale, and serves food. Has Sky Sports. Masses of free parking all around. Website.
Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool Marina, Hartlepool, Durham, TS24 0XZ. Tel: 01429 862963. Map: Click Here.
Rat Race Ale House: Second Micropub in the Country to Open – attached to Hartlepool Train Station. Opening times: Sat 12:02-21:00 (Note quirky Opening Time). Regular beers: Four Changing Cask Ales & Two Ciders/Perry
Rat Race Ale House, Station Approach, Hartlepool, TS24 7EB. Tel: 07903 479378. Map: Click Here.
Ward Jackson (Wetherspoons): Pub named after a local shipbuilder. Regular beers: Usual Spoons Range with up to 4 Guest Cask Ales. Regular beers: Usual Spoons Range with up to 4 Guest Cask Ales. Opening times: Sat 08:00-01:00. Website.
Ward Jackson, 3-9 Church Square, Hartlepool, TS24 7EY. Tel: 01429 850140. Map: Click Here.
Camerons Brewery Tap & Bottle Shop: Opened in derelict pub that Camerons discovered it owned. Regular beers: Flagship Beer Strongarm + two Monthly Specials on Cask. Opening times: Sat 12:00-22:00. Website.
Camerons Brewery Tap & Bottle Shop, Stockton Street, Hartlepool, TS24 7QS. Tel: 01429 868686. Map.
Causeway: A beer house licence has been held since 1862 at this unspoilt CAMRA award winning red brick Victorian pub beside Camerons brewery and Stranton church. With its real fires, four rooms, covered walled garden, live music most evenings, Tuesday quiz and five cask ales: Strongarm and Mansfield Bitter plus three changing beers from the Marstons range of monthly specials altogether making this a place very much worth a visit. Within walking distance of the ground. Regular beers: Five Cask Ales – usually Camerons Strongarm, Mansfield Bitter & 3 Guests. Opening times: Sat 12:00-00:00.
Causeway, Vicarage Gardens, Hartlepool, TS24 7QT. Tel: 01429 263000 Map.
Likelihood the Natives Will Understand You :
In Hugh’s poverty stricken student hitching days I once got a lift of over 200 miles with a lorry driver from the North-East. He talked non-stop for four hours and in that time, what with the roar of the engine and the broad ‘Geordie’ accent, I understood not one single word. It seemed to matter naught. On the brief occasions he paused for a split second to suck in some oxygen a random ‘yep’ or ‘nope’ was sufficient to launch him on again.
Top-Tip :
Take some warm clothing. If you don’t believe us you obviously haven’t been there before or to places like Grimsby! If the wind is whipping off that North Sea it is COLD. And if it turns out that global warming has reached Hartlepool one day a decade then just leave those thermals in the car.
[No responsibility is taken for any inaccuracies. This page is entirely the product of bias and prejudice.]