IN AT THE DEEP END FOR POOL

FC Hartlepool have been on the fast track to promotion to the Ebac Northern League.

In 2021 they set themselves a five-year plan to win promotion from the Wearside League but achieved it in two.  And they now have an enticing first game tonight against a team just a couple of miles up the coast:  Easington Colliery.

That game is away and their first home game at the Grayfields Sports Pavillion is on Tuesday, August 1 against Thornaby.

Chairman Salaam Shaheen said: “We’re absolutely delighted to be in the league.

“I’ve been involved in the club since 2018 and at that time the club only had a handful of junior teams and a first team but there was an opportunity to take on Grayfields.  It was a council-run community asset and following a very competitive and complex tender process, we were proudly chosen to be the custodians of the site for the next 25 years.

“Promotion has come as a big challenge.  We found ourselves near the top of the league at Christmas but our ground wasn’t ready, but we moved heaven and earth to get it ready for promotion.  We won the league and came up.

“We will be the first club from our proud town to be hosting Northern League football.

“We want to compete – the board, management and first team are all ambitious; we’re not here to make up the numbers.  We want to compete and get promotion at some point.

“Everyone is excited and we’re particularly looking forward to our first home game.”

Meanwhile, manager Terry Hill is hoping to be under the radar for the first couple of matches of the season and surprise a few people.  “Preparations are going really well.  We obviously had an excellent season last season and we want to build on that. We’ve brought in a couple of older players who have experience of the league.

“It’s exciting times, especially with the second division looking very strong and with a lot of local teams.  There are teams with really good players and clubs with aspirations to crack on.

“It’s been a travesty that the town hasn’t had a Northern League team.  How will we do?  Who knows?  It’ll be a case of taking each match as they come, see what happens and get our first three points on the board.

“There’s a buzz around the town and we hope to get some decent crowds, especially if Hartlepool United are playing away and it’ll be good to get to some new grounds as well.”

The club’s fixture list for the season is here:

https://www.northernfootballleague.org/team/fc-hartlepool/