Victoria Park

10^th October 2003

Hartlepool United 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday

This was a Friday evening match, and having drove down, found accommodation, I thought I had nothing more to do than present myself at the ground, pay my money and enter.  

However, arriving at Victoria Park just on kick-off, I was more than slightly alarmed to find no turnstiles open.  The match was on - there was no doubt of that.  I could see the floodlights and hear the throaty throng inside, but the doors had been closed leaving me and half a dozen other stragglers meandering around like lost sheep.  It then dawned on me “This game is Sold Out.  I am not going to get in!  Fuck.”

Then a really magical thing happened.  One of the turnstile doors opened and a tiny waif of a girl popped her head out and said “In here, quick”, and us small group of wastrels filed swiftly in.  The guy in front of me offered the girl admittance money, but she waved it aside.  

Then I realised she was not sneaking a few of her friends in to make a quick buck for herself, but was letting us bunch of strangers in simply because she thought we, like she, were Hartlepool supporters.  And she did not want us to miss the game.  I pressed a £5 on her as I passed which she reluctantly took.

This rather blurry shot does, serendipidously, give a good impression of the
frantic pace this match was played at.

Pic from the same spot in 2022

Panorama of Victoria Park (2003)

Panorama of Victoria Park (2022)

Once inside, I could see why they had closed the doors.  The place was bouncing, and it finally dawned on me that I had totally underestimated the magnitude of this match to the town of Hartlepool.  Reading the programme, I discovered this was actually the first ever league meeting between the two clubs.  

Such was the (usual) disparity between the two, the pair had I learned never before found themselves in the same league division.  Promotion for the home side last season, allied to relegation for Wednesday had thrust these unlikely combatants together in Division 2.  The match had been given extra spice, as a few weeks earlier Hartlepool had travelled to Sheffield and eliminated Wednesday from the League Cup. 

The game seemed to fly past and my impression was, as always whenever I come down to England, of just how much higher the standard of football was.  Players just seemed that bit bigger, fitter and more comfortable on the ball.  A breathless, goalless first-half seemed to last around 15 minutes, during which time the visitors enjoyed the bulk of possession, but the home lot came closest to scoring when a shot from Ritchie Humphreys thudded back off the Wednesday crossbar.

Two minutes after the break, Lloyd OWUSU put the visitors in front capitalising on a poor back-pass by home defender Michael Nelson.  This encouraged Wednesday to enjoy their best spell of the match, and both Adam Proudlock and Terry Cooke squandered opportunities to extend their side’s lead.  

But as the match entered the final quarter, play began to flow more and more in the direction of the visitors’ goal; the final ten minutes being real backs-to-the-wall stuff.  The inevitable, and well deserved, equaliser finally came with 6 minutes remaining from the blond head of Marco GABBIADINI.

So, only two goals, but some quite scintillating entertainment, and I send an eKiss in thanks to the wee lassie on the gate. 

Club badge above the club shop (2003)

By 2022, windows had been installed above what is now the Reception Area.
A Pay-for-a-Brick wall has also been erected.

A wider view of the Reception area (2022)

The rear of The Victoria Park Millhouse Stand in 2003 

Same view in 2022, the structure presently being known as The Teeside Int. Airport Stand.

 

************************************************************************************************

Hartlepool United 0-0 Oldham  Athletic

The fine match programme featured an excellent
twenty-nine page review of 2021.  But, oddly enough, no up-to-date league table.

1st January 2022

My 2022 footballing travels opened with a 350 mile round trip to take in a scoreless draw.  That is was perhaps one of more entertaining nil-nil I have seen compensated slightly.  Not that many of the frustrated home support would agree.  For their side dominated possession this afternoon, yet somehow failed to score.  

Jordan Cook hit a post in the first half, and David Ferguson in the second, before the Gavin Holohan forced Oldham Jayden Leutwiler 'keeper to pull of a superb stop.  

And yet it was, ironically, the beleaguered visitors who created the clearest opportunity of the match, when Dylan Bahamboula took advantage of a couple of slips in the home defence toe feed Jack Stobbs, who criminally shot wide when scoring looked far easier. 

Victoria Park from A698

Victoria Park from Clarence Road.

Victoria Park is presently known as The Suit Direct Stadium.

The Oldham Athletic kit has its own van!

The Corner Flag is a hostelry run by the Supporters' Association.

I cannot be sure, by my recollection is that it was the blue door
on the far right which magically re-opened in 2003.

Not seen this before at a football ground - at least not at a UK one.

The masts of the HMS Trincomalee, berthed at the
nearby National Museum of the Royal Navy

Panorama of Victoria Park, Hartlepool United.

The home side defend a second-half corner.

Cyril Knowles was a former Hartlepool manager, who had enjoyed a long playing
career with Tottenham Hotspur.  Knowles was manager of United from 1989-91, until his early death from cancer.

The Cyril Knowles Stand - Victoria Park.

Hartlepool v Oldham - January 2022

Panorama of Victoria Park, Hartlepool United

********************************************************************************************

A fifteen-minute was from Victoria Park can be found The National Museum of The Royal Navy.  Here, along with the adjacent marina, is a fine place to while away a couple of hours of one's life.

Hartlepool Marina