You could be forgiven for thinking that John plans his articles weeks in advance! The answers to last week’s quiz all seem to be ‘Motherwell’ and this gets him on to asking if Pools are a feeder club for this giant of Scottish football! But it also leads him to a short film from the BBC about Motherwell, the town and the club – an amazing film and the parallels to Hartlepool are powerful. It is worth reading the column just for the link to this film – but he also looks at the success of Cambridge Fans United and concludes by ‘sort of’ inviting the chairman for a pint or three!

Recently Richard Ward and John Cooke of HUST met with Garreth Cummins, Network Manager for non-League football with the newly formed Football Supporters’ Association (FSA). At the meeting we learnt more about the FSA, its role and what support was available to members, and took the opportunity to provide Garreth an update on HUST.

This week we find John filling his column with quotes from @Hangus99, the Heed Army website, and the Nottingham Post – yes, he’s having another dig at the oldest football club in the ‘whole wide world’ again. But he also manages to give our very own Mr Maguire a lesson in football economics with this quote from Jock Stein – “Without fans who pay at the turnstile, football is nothing. Sometimes we are inclined to forget that. The only chance of bringing them into stadiums is if they are entertained by what happens on the football field.” Actually John – and definitely Jock – might have a point!