Trying To Win (with) The Pools - A Hartlepool United Story

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OCTOBER

Hartlepool United 1 (Djurovski 24)
Burnley 0

Home game = home win lol. Djurovski just signed a new deal to get rid of his £400K minimum release fee.

--

Crystal Palace 2 (Mason 30, Gayle 45)
Hartlepool United 1 (Schwartz 49)

Away game = away defeat as usual.

--

Hartlepool United 1 (Masoud 10)
Norwich City 0

Another excellent home performance as their keeper got the man of the match award and we kept their £14m striker van Wolfswinkel quiet!!

--

Leeds United 1 (Takyi 39)
Hartlepool United 2 (Masoud 43, Schwartz 66)

AN AWAY WIN!!!!!! Fantastic - although they had a late equaliser disallowed.

--

LINEUPS
OPP
RES
GK
RB
CB
CB
LB
CM
CM
AMR
AML
AMC
ST
SUBS
Burn
1-0
Flinders
Omozusi
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Hetherington
Fahey
Lingard
Masoud
Djurovski*
James
-
Cry P
1-2
Flinders
Omozusi
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Hetherington
Fahey
James
Whelan
Djurovski
Jarju
Masoud, Hutchinson, Lingard
Norw
1-0
Flinders
Hutchinson
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Thomson
Fahey
James
Whelan
Masoud
Jarju
Omozusi, Lingard
Leeds
2-1
Flinders
Hutchinson
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Djurovski*
Fahey
James
Whelan
Masoud
Jarju
Lingard, Hetherington, Mulconroy

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
MARIO DJUROVSKI
View attachment 378966
--

SUMMARY

Not many games this month which was a blessing in disguise as it allowed my players longer breaks inbetween matches and they responded by winning 3 out of 4 and we finish the month top of the table!!

God knows where we will end up although if we can stay in touch until January I should be able to get money to spend as I can change my seasons objectives.

I loaned out backup players Etheridge, Hurst and Sandaza this month.

View attachment 378967

--

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UKRAINE

UEFA European Championship Quals Group A

Ukraine 4 (Stepanenko 37, 54, Yarmolenko 49, Khacheridi 61)
Iceland 1 (Gislason 86)

--

San Marino 0
Ukraine 3 (Stepanenko 23, Yarmolenko 56, Milevskyi 90)

View attachment 378960

​
 

images

our rented stadium in Darlington

NOVEMBER

Newcastle United 0
Hartlepool United 1 (Jarju 6)

Going into this game I thought I would be happy with a 6-0 thrashing (being a Newcastle fan) but in the end as I type this - (immediately after the match as I do my post as I play each match) I am overjoyed!!!!

They have a lot of **** but still boast the likes of Papiss Cisse, Cheick Tiote, Tom Ince, Darren Bent and Tim Krul.

UNBELIEVABLE JEFF!!!!!

--

Hartlepool United 4 (Baldwin 6, Whelan 35, Thomson 40, Omozusi 65)
Brentford 1 (Taylor 49)

Brentford are rock bottom and going down so I expected a win. After all it was a home game!!!

--

Hartlepool United 1 (Jarju 67)
Bolton Wanderers 0

Apparently we were the favourites for this game - shows how many strides we have taken forward.

--

Charlton Athletic 1 (Jackson 90)
Hartlepool United 0

This was heartbreaking as we were by far the better team against a pretty poor Charlton side but they struck in stoppage time to win it. We have yet to draw a game this season amazingly - 22 games in.

--

Hartlepool United 2 (McKinney 44, Holden 58)
Brighton & Hove Albion 0

This was a great win as we were missing several players and had to put out a very young side. Franks got injured and is the next player to be out for 3 months!

--

Leicester City 2 (Nugent 13, Hunt 49)
Hartlepool United 2 (Poole 10, Jarju 50)

Our first draw and it was as good as a victory as I was missing nearly a dozen players here and played people who had fitness levels at 81-83%

--

Hartlepool United 2 (James 59, Miller 84)
Birmingham City 0

I have noticed that although our rented stadium at Darlington has a capacity of 25,000 we still only get an average attendance as if we were playing at Victoria Park..............

--

LINEUPS
OPP
RES
GK
RB
CB
CB
LB
CM
CM
AMR
AML
AMC
ST
SUBS
New1-0Flinders*HutchinsonOmozusiSchwartzHoldenDjurovskiFaheyJamesWhelanMasoudJarjuThomson
Brent4-1FlindersHutchinsonBaldwin*SchwartzHoldenHetheringtonThomsonJamesWhelanMasoudJarjuOmozusi, Lingard
Bolt1-0FlindersOmozusiBaldwinSchwartzHoldenDjurovskiFaheyJamesWhelanMasoudJarjuLingard
Char0-1FlindersHutchinsonBaldwin*SchwartzHoldenDjurovskiFaheyJamesWhelanMasoud
Jarju
Omozusi, Lingard, Hetherington
Brig2-0FlindersMulconroy
Baldwin*
Healy
HoldenHetherington
FaheyLingard
Franks
DjurovskiJamesMcKinney, Poole, Miller
Leic2-2
FlindersMulconroyBaldwin
Childs
HoldenHetherington
FaheyPoole
LingardJarju
JamesHutchinson
Birm2-0
Flinders
Mulconroy
Baldwin
Hutchinson
Holden
Hetherington
Jarju
Lingard
Whelan*
Djurovski
James
Miller, Tesfaye, McKinney

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
JACK BALDWIN
View attachment 379007

--


SUMMARY

A fantastic month in where we got an excellent win away to Newcastle and we even managed to draw a game and while our only defeat was a sore one to take I cant complain too much. We are exactly halfway through the league campaign and are 14pts clear of 7th place which is nice.

I have just noticed that my chairman will listen to offers. Hopefully somebody with a bit of cash will come in!!!

View attachment 379008

--

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UKRAINE

Friendly

Ukraine 2 (Radu og13, Seleznyov 59)
Romania 2 (Tucudean 67, Stanciu 90pen)
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Last edited:
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DECEMBER

Hartlepool United 2 (Whelan 41, Djurovski 44pen)
Blackburn Rovers 1 (Rosado 57)

--

Watford 2 (Athanasiadis 18, Faraoni 41)
Hartlepool United 1 (James 64)

Not too disappointed as they are far stronger than us.

--

Millwall 1 (Drury 82)
Hartlepool United 4 (Whelan 2, Jarju 15, Djurovski 27, Schwartz 90)

A great win. We had Fahey sent-off in the first half and Whelan had a goal disallowed too!

--

Hartlepool United 1 (James 90)
Ipswich Town 0

A bit different to our 5-0 away win earlier in the season!

--

Bradford City 1 (Wells 3)
Hartlepool United 2 (Djurovski 24, 84)

Bradford are still rock bottom but they made life difficult for us here.

--

Hartlepool United 2 (Lingard 21pen, 37pen)
Sheffield Wednesday 0

I thought we would drop our first points at home here as they are doing well and we had a backup side out but they gifted us 2 pens and 3pts.

--

LINEUPS
OPP
RES
GK
RB
CB
CB
LB
CM
CM
AMR
AML
AMC
ST
SUBS
Black
2-1
Flinders
Hutchinson
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Hetherington
Fahey
James
Whelan
Djurovski
Jarju
Lingard, Poole, Miller
Watf
1-2
Flinders
Hutchinson
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Hetherington
Fahey
James
Whelan
Djurovski
Jarju
Poole, Lingard, Thomson
Mill
4-1
Flinders
Hutchinson
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Hetherington
Fahey
James
Whelan
Djurovski
Jarju*
-
Ips
1-0
Flinders
Hutchinson
Baldwin*
Schwartz
Holden
Fardeau
Thomson
James
Whelan
Djurovski
Jarju
Tesfaye, Lingard, Miller
Brad
2-1
Flinders
Hutchinson
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Hetherington
Fahey
James
Whelan
Djurovski* 2
Jarju
Lingard
Sheff
Wed
2-0
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin*
Schwartz
Mulconroy
Fardeau
Thomson
Poole
McKinney
Lingard 2
Tesfaye
Healy, Miller

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
MARIO DJUROVSKI
View attachment 379040

--

SUMMARY

Another great month with 6 wins out of 7 as we are still top of the table and looking good. We are 20pts clear of 7th place so a play-off position will be the minimum position we will finish.

I am yet to find out if any funds will become available with the change of expectations for the season but hopefully I will get a bit of cash to spend. I need a major overhaul of the current squad if we do make it to the promised land!!!

Our next game is in the FA Cup at home to Premiership side Wigan Athletic.

View attachment 379042
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Last edited:
meguel said:
Poor result against San Marino there.
Click to expand...

We got the win and a couple of goals so it wasnt too bad. We had summat like 15 shots on target so it could have been the expected 6-7 goal winning margin.
 
LovanoFM said:
I call hacks
Click to expand...

Dont understand lol

In the end I got an extra £4K on the weekly wage budget and £0 for the transfer kitty.

The best I could go for was top half finish comically
 
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JANUARY

FA Cup 3rd Round
Hartlepool United 2 (Djurovski 48, James 89)
Wigan Athletic 1 (Fortune 36)

For some reason we played this game on Wednesday, a few days after everyone else played. A great win against Premiership opposition although there team was pretty average.

--

Hartlepool United 2 (Schwartz 36, Whelan 54)
Nottingham Forest 1 (Andre Moritz 20)

This was revenge for the defeat earlier in the season. They were the better team but as usual we took our chances.

--

West Bromwich Albion 2 (Puncheon 38, Tamas 70)
Hartlepool United 0

Meh

--

Huddersfield Town 1 (Vaughan 34)
Hartlepool United 2 (James 19, Lingard 25)

Kevin Thomson got injured and is out for 3-4 months.........

--

FA Cup 4th Round
Hartlepool United 2 (Djurovski 24, 58pen)
Ipswich Town 1 (Taylor 90)

Ipswich must hate us as thats 3 wins against them this season.

--

Bournemouth 1 (Pitman 63)
Hartlepool United 2 (Masoud 33, 60)

Another 2-1 win. Masoud returned from the Asian Cup to great effect.

--

LINEUPS
OPP
RES
GK
RB
CB
CB
LB
CM
CM
AMR
AML
AMC
ST
SUBS
Wig
2-1
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Hetherington
Thomson
Lingard
Whelan
Djurovski*
James
Tesfaye
Notts
For
2-1
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Fardeau
Miller
Lingard
Whelan
Djurovski
James
Tesfaye, Stratford, Hutchinson
WBA
0-2
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Hetherington
Thomson
Lingard
Whelan
Djurovski
James
Clough, Fardeau
Hudd
2-1
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin
Schwartz
Vangjeli
Hetherington
Thomson
Lingard
Whelan
Djurovski
James*
Fardeau, Hutchinson, Miller
Ips
2-1
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Hetherington
Brady
Lingard
Whelan
Djurovski* 2
James
Fardeau, Vanjeli
Bourn
2-1
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Djurovski
Brady
Lingard
Whelan
Masoud* 2
James
-

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
JACK BALDWIN
View attachment 379072

--

SUMMARY

On the pitch everything was pretty much perfect but off it I was left extremely frustrated with my transfer dealings. I was only given an extra £5K a week on my wage bill for promoting my expectations.

So with that in mind I went to create some finances and promptly sold Keith Fahey for £575K and Neil Etheridge for £22K. I also loaned out Sandaza, Omozusi and Poole.

So to fill my squad I tried to bring in Damian Martinez, Siarhey Kisliak and Faouzi Aaish and they all failed to get work permits!!! I was and still am raging. All 3 would be part of my squad should we get promoted.

So in the end I brought in another young Irish keeper on a free as well as Matthew Bates, Kristi Vangjeli and Zach Clough (on loan).
View attachment 379089View attachment 379090View attachment 379091View attachment 379092

I also got young regen midfielder Billy Brady back from his loan spell and promoted him to the first team.

So somehow I have actually managed to make my squad weaker! lol

View attachment 379071
​
 
CRAZZINESS! Finally caught up, last post I read was the one I commented on about winning League 2! Since then you have won League 1 and sit top of the Championship! Great effort as always. Your story's are always great, keep it up.
 
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not just Smurfs - penguins too!

FEBRUARY

Hartlepool United 2 (Masoud 30, Lingard 76)
Derby County 0

--

FA Cup 5th Round
Arsenal 3 (Wilshere 2, Hearn 42, Oxlade-Chamberlain 75)
Hartlepool United 1 (James 53)

They played their first choice defence (including Bellusci and Criscito) plus Wilshere but the rest were youngsters. We did ok though.

--

Hartlepool United 2 (James 9, Reach og84)
Middlesbrough 1 (Reach 74)

YES!!!!!! Boro remain in 3rd as we move 11pts clear of them.

--

Burnley 0
Hartlepool United 1 (James 70)

This game makes me think we are destined to win the title. We had 1 shot on target which resulted in a goal and moments later my debutant Al-Kamali scored an own goal but it was disallowed!

--

LINEUPS
OPP
RES
GK
RB
CB
CB
LB
CM
CM
AMR
AML
AMC
ST
SUBS
Derby
2-0
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin*
Schwartz
Holden
Djurovski
Brady
James
Whelan
Masoud
Jarju
Fardeau, Bates, Lingard
Ars
1-3
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin
Schwartz
Holden
Djurovski
Brady
James
Whelan
Masoud
Jarju
Fardeau, Lingard
Midd
2-1
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin*
Schwartz
Holden
Djurovski
Brady
Lingard
Whelan
Masoud
James
Fardeau, Vangjeli
Burn
1-0
Flinders
Clarke
Baldwin*
Al-Kamali
Vangjeli
Djurovski
Schwartz
Lingard
Whelan
Masoud
James
Bates, Hetherington, Franks

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
JACK BALDWIN
View attachment 379103

--

SUMMARY

Lots of stories this month. On the park we won all 3 league games to move 10pts clear with a game in hand to pretty much set us up for the title. We also battled away against Arsenal in the FA Cup.

Most of the news was off the field. I managed to strengthen my side by signing a new centre-half in the shape of U.A.E. international Hamdan Al-Kamali on a free. For the rest of the season he will play CB with Baldwin and Schwartz will play in midfield.
View attachment 379106

Also we are in the process of a board takeover. I fully welcome that if the potential new owners give me a bit more cash to spend!!

Finally we moved back to Victoria Park after the work on the ground was finished.

View attachment 379107

AND THEN THIS HAPPENED.....................................

View attachment 379108

My beloved Newcastle came knocking on my door offering me the chance to lead them back into the Premiership. Sorely tempting. Decent budget, decent players, plus Mike Ashley aint there.............

Hmmmm
​
 
Last edited:
Please stick with the Pool! Not enough lower league stories on here. And this one is your best yet IMO!
 
Stay or you will ruin the story- it happened in the pass the parcel story where they moved from reading to Man U.
Stay!
 
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MARCH

Norwich City 1 (Hooper 20)
Hartlepool United 0

They had over 20 shots on goal and dominated until the last 10min when we bombarded them and could have equalised a few times.

--

Hartlepool United 1 (James 8)
Crystal Palace 1 (Becchio 15)

Our first home game of the season which we dont win and only our 2nd draw of the season!

--

Hartlepool United 2 (Brady 68, Lingard 90pen)
Leeds United 1 (Takyi 12)

This win secures our place in the play-offs apparently

--

LINEUPS
OPP
RES
GK
RB
CB
CB
LB
CM
CM
AMR
AML
AMC
ST
SUBS
Norw0-1FlindersClarkeBaldwin
Schwartz*BatesDjurovskiHetheringtonLingardWhelanMasoudJamesMulconroy
Cry P1-1FlindersClarkeBaldwin*Al-KamaliVangjeliDjurovskiSchwartzLingardWhelanMasoudJamesMulconroy, Brady, Hetherington
Leeds2-1
FlindersHutchinson
BaldwinAl-KamaliHoldenHetherington
Schwartz
Lingard
Whelan
MasoudJames
Brady, Clough, Bates

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
SETH SCHWARTZ
View attachment 379118
doesnt really deserve it for the 3 games but he has been excellent for the past 2 seasons

--

SUMMARY

So as you can see I stayed put! I actually got offered the Blackburn Rovers job too.

Not much to write about regarding Hartlepool!!! Only 3 games played which produced mixed results and a play-off position.

The youth intake happened and we got 2 decent prospects in. Neither will feature in the first team regularly straight away but they will get some minutes no doubt.
View attachment 379120View attachment 379121

There is no news regarding a possible takeover.

--

images

UKRAINE

Friendly

Ukraine 4 (Seleznyov 33, Morozyuk 62, Bezus 86, Mykhalyk 90)
Belarus 1 (Kornilenko 63)

--

UEFA European Championship Quals Group A

Ukraine 2 (Seleznyov 26, Bezus 38pen)
Malta 1 (Grech 28)

Over 30 shots on goal and only 8 on target - not good enough.

View attachment 379119
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Last edited:
Unbelievable that you're tearing up the Championship with The Pool!!
 
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