Hartlepool United are the only professional club in the town of Hartlepool, but there is another club in the town, FC Hartlepool that are making a name for themselves. Recently taking the name FC Hartlepool from Hartlepool FC and changing the kits from the blue and white stripes of Hartlepool United to a different red and blue. This was to distance the club from United and better play up to their nickname that is simply 'FC'. This rebrand came with big plans for the future of the club and The Beautiful Game spoke with FC Club Secretary Chris Murray to discuss in detail:
The club has a great history and goes back over 40 years in the town - Murray discuss in more detail:
"The club was formed in 1979 and played for a number of years in the old Hartlepool Church League before switching to the Teesside league in 2002.
"Over the next few years the club won a number of trophies including the Durham Minor Cup, the Durham Trophy and the Teesside League itself.
"It was this success that saw the club decide to try and enter the national league pyramid system and in 2006 were accepted into the Wearside League.
"Throughout the clubs history there have been a number of successful junior teams attached but it was only around 4 years ago that we decided to establish a permanent junior section within the club and provide players with a clear football pathway from u7 football all the way through into Adult senior football.
"We now have 23 teams playing under the FC Hartlepool banner competing in leagues all over the North East."
A club with a lot of local history, the success of the club in years gone by has helped push it to new heights and into better leagues. The Wearside League sets in 11 and 12 on the English Football Pyramid and plays host to clubs such as Washington United, Darlington Railway Athletic and Silksworth Colliery Welfare all well established in the league. But they do not want to stop there:
"Our main aim from the first team point of view is to achieve promotion to the Northern League and compete in competitions like the FA vase and FA cup.
"Hartlepool has some excellent footballers and we firmly believe the town needs and could sustain a Northern League side."
However, this does not come without challenges, FC play at Grayfields a local recreational ground that has one pitch surrounded by an enclosure. But has no real area for fans to stand FC are trying to change this and better the facilities at Grayfields:
"One of our big problems and one of the reasons we haven't progressed further yet is down to the facilities.
"We currently play at Grayfields which is a council owned venue and not suitable for Northern League football.
"We needed a home base we could develop if we want to move forward so a lot of hard work has gone in over the last couple of years, we restructured as a CIO, introduced a new committee behind the scenes and worked closely with the council on our plans and were rewarded when we successfully won the tender to take over the Grayfields site on an asset transfer."
"The plans have slowed a bit due to Covid but we have aims to turn the site into a real community hub that can be used by the whole town whilst at the same time developing the main pitch to Northern League standard.
"We recently done some fundraising to help build a clubhouse and work is due to start very soon. We are developing the upstairs space in the Grayfield Pavillion into a bar / clubhouse that will be open 7 days a week and be able to host many community activities."
"Once we move into the site fully we will look to develop the ground to make it Northern League ready by adding things like hard standing, terracing areas, seating floodlights etc and again make it a venue that people will want to visit and a venue that will be fit to host games such as local cup finals, school final representative games etc."
The link to help the club through their Facebook page can be found here:
The club has really big plans to not just make a better place for their team to play but to have a top venue that can be used by the community of Hartlepool to use. A fantastic cause to get involved with as it can be used for some real good in the community.
The club has had some great local players play for them included Jamie Tumilty who scored 56 goals across two seasons between 2016-18 and has since moved on to play in the higher divisions. On their current squad Murray said:
"At the moment our squad is very young with a lot of potential and with quite a few of the players being part of professional academies as juniors but just missing out on full time contracts.
"One of the issues we have is that we don't pay our players so we often see bigger Northern League clubs come along and tempt them away but we are hoping that with the current project we have and the plans for the future this will help keep the best players in the town."
With the only team that pays players in the town being the professional club Hartlepool United. The best players are tempted away from the town to go and play elsewhere. There are some good players in Hartlepool and it is great that a club in the town is trying to keep the best players playing in the town. Sunday League is a massive part of the football community in town and there is a local Sunday League element to what FC are trying to do and I am sure that the football fans of Hartlepool can appreciate that.
On helping the community FC Hartlepool said:
"We currently have 23 teams playing from FC and will probably be more next year. These teams range from our u7's up to the first team and our talented o35 team that features players like Andy Taylor the ex Middlesbrough player who is also part of our committee."
"We also host a regular 'Kickers' session that sees around 70-80 3 to 6 year olds learning the game and having fun every week. This means we have every age and ability covered and are able to offer a safe and secure environment for everyone to get involved and enjoy football."
The club not only facilitates the mens game but every age group, giving children an opportunity to play football and be apart of a community. Football is a way for people to connect at all ages and it is great that the club understands this and puts a lot of time and effort into getting children of all ages involved in the game of football. Murray continued:
"Once we move into the Grayfields site we will be able to offer a lot more services and be able to develop the facilities to benefit the whole community.
"We have already been successful in obtaining a large grant to improve the quality of the pitches at Grayfields which will benefit all the users especially the Sunday morning teams.
"We are also looking to introduce free coaching sessions for the under privileged, free school meals outside of term time and have already registered the site as a foodbank collection point.
"We also have ideas for things like music festivals, open air cinemas, junior tournaments and would even like to bring the Hartlepool show back in some form or another.
"Whilst football will always be at the centre of what we do we are wanting the site to become a real hive of activity and make it something the whole town can be proud of.
With not only football on the mind FC Hartlepool are looking to build a community and further develop their team to reach greater heights. With the support of the town the sky is really the limit for FC and there is a lot of potential in the project that everyone should get behind and support.
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