John this week manages to compare a Pools player to a Ladies Handkerchief (with perhaps a subtle dig at a recent team performance), looks on in envy at developments at Bury FC and Rochdale AFC and, again, without any particular justification, manages to mention his hero, Wayne Goldthorpe. John also asks ‘what happened to the Pools Fans Forum?’ Wouldn’t it be great if we saw an answer to this question on our Facebook page?

Those members whose membership is due for renewal this month should now have received an email to confirm instructions on how to renew. If you can’t see the email then please check your spam folder, or if your email address has changed then please email us at membership@hufcsupporterstrust.org.uk with the details of the change.

This week John manages to talk about the involvement of James Bond in Hartlepool United, he again returns to the subject of Bolton Wanderers, and (as instructed from within Fortress Vic) he adopts a positive approach to looking at the work of a number of other Trusts – including the ongoing impact of a trust on tomorrow’s visitors, AFC Telford.

John starts the New Year by going back to an article from 2013 by Stuart Fuller, Chairman of Lewes FC and writer of the award winning The Ball is Round blog – this thought provoking read gets John musing about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain playing for Pools and wondering if the time is now right for the return of Steve Howard. Steve Howard who, like Simon Walton, finished his Pools career with a red card – which gets John around to welcoming ‘old fist-pump’ back to Fortress Vic!

Here are the results for the December 2018 HUST lottery draw which took place at the Nursery Inn pub in Hartlepool on December 28th at 19:00

Are all Gateshead fans bald? What did Mark Maguire ask Santa? Has the game gone mad? A definite case of Bah Humbug from John Ashton who ends the year with a few questions.