Come on The Pools

Through getting to know my dentist's husband, who hails from Hartlepool, I have become an honorary Pools fan. Last season we went to see The Pools at AFC Wimbledon but they were relegated at the end of the season back to the Vanamara National League - the 5th tier of English football.  So it was that we found ourselves back at Woking's Kingsfield Stadium (a rather grandiose way to describe the ground, which has just the one stand of any size). The crowd numbered circa 2,500 of which 178 were Hartlepool supporters. I don't think many of them had made the trek down to Surrey from the North East. A couple of years ago I saw The Pools play Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in the FA Cup and 5,000 Hartlepool fans had been brought down to South East London by coach and, wow, did they make a noise. There was a bit of noise from the away end when Hartlepool scored an early goal. They managed to hold on to their slender lead until the last 5 minutes of the game when Woking scored an equaliser. A fairly forgettable game, I regret to say but an away point for The Pools is better than nothing I suppose. The main photo was taken on the way into the ground and struck me as an interesting composition. The extra is of some (rare) goal area action at our end of the pitch in the second half.