Albatross remembers some less glorious moments

By Albatross
August 5 2002

In his second "A view from afar" article, Albatross writes about some of Pools more infamous moments of recent years - including one of the most infamous of all....

Picture the scene: Recently exiled to Merseyside, cut off from Home Games, no car. It's 1995, the web is in it's infancy, so you're having to rely on phone calls to your family and the Footie Mail arriving every Tuesday to find out what's going on. Starved of Poolie Action for a couple of months, you are eagerly trying to work out how to get to any game you can. The Auto Windscreens draw has been made, and you've got a game you can get to.

So one midweek night, you change into your Pools shirt just before leaving work, and without even going home for a bite to eat catch a train, then another. Out you get in a Cheshire town, and walk the short distance to Gresty Road, Home of Crewe Alexandra.

In hindsight I suppose it wasn't an unexpected result. Crewe were going for promotion at the top end of Division 2, while Pools were again at the wrong end of the basement division. Dario Gradi's academy was in full swing; Pools fielded a side including the likes of Steve Jones, Denny Ingram and "Star of the Show" Steve Halliday. The 8-0 hammering that followed was so depressing that I lost count of Crewe's goals at one point and thought it had finished at 9! Then another two train journeys followed by a three mile walk home, arriving back at midnight.

The thing is of course that despite seeing my team utterly humiliated, I still went to see them play at Wigan the following weekend.

Being an Exile means that almost all the games you get to see are away from home. And that means that especially when Pools have been poor, there's always more chance of a hammering. Losing 5-0 at Stockport anybody? Although I'm sure at least three of the goals were offside. The poor performances I have witnessed over the years have been legion; away at Burnley, where the only thing of note for Poolies was the recently re-signed Keith Houchen making the first appearance of his second spell. Spending a Bank Holiday Monday travelling to London to see us surrender pitifully to Leyton Orient. Losing at Preston - the only high point being the mirth of seeing the Preston fans unfurl a huge banner - upside down. Getting tonked by Rotherham. Turgid 0-0 draws, often in the worst of the weather. (Anyone else remember getting sleeted on at Huddersfield one Easter Saturday a few seasons back? Hull in 2000/1 on a wet and windy night?)

And yet for every stuffing by Crewe, there's a thrashing of Preston; for every 0-0 draw there's a dramatic Pools comeback in the last minutes to salvage something. Tune in next time for some of these moments of ecstasy!