Following on from the success of the Duchess of Sussex taking over editorial duties for the September edition of Vogue magazine, we have this week allowed the renowned philatelist, Edward Stanley Gibbons to take over from John Ashton, our usual contributor. Now you may know that Stanley originally trained as a chemist but we should emphasise that there is no foundation in any of the stories that he in any way used this training when seeing his four wives die, and be replaced, in short order. The fact that Stanley died in interesting circumstances, or that this was in 1913, shouldn’t be used to spoil the joke that is this week’s column!

Terrace Thoughts by John Ashton (45).docx
19 KB
This week John, who is clearly in a rush to get to the Chorley Cricket Club Beer Festival, is banging the ‘fund-raising’ drum – reminding everyone that we Poolies need a Plan B – as we can’t forever rely on the largesse and patience of Raj Singh.

A short, sombre and somewhat reflective piece from John this week; he briefly touches on the situation at Bury FC before focussing on the tragedies surrounding Emiliano Sala and our own Romoney Crichlow-Noble.

A somewhat disappointed John this week puts his postage stamp away and largely ignores Pools – instead he takes a quick look at Bury, as that once proud club awaits the executioner’s call, and looks on as Bolton suspends ticket sales for tomorrow’s match. At least we have a game to go to – but he’s thinking about having a lie in…………….

This week John welcomes in the new season with an expectation of 6 wins out of the first 8 games – tremendous stuff! Has John ever been so confident before? Probably not. But, he then puts his dentures back in and starts biting at the recent utterings of Carlisle manager, Steven Pressley. Pressley who thinks that Bury and Bolton should be kicked out of the EFL. John may well be right here…………

This week John asks if we’ll ever play the likes of Bury or Notts County again; indeed, will they ever play again? John suggests that supporters really need to look into the business dealings, past and present, of their owners and uses the Bury story to prove his point.