Hartlepool United were in a relegation scrap in 1999 before Chris Turner was appointed and turned the club around. Ian Clark, now head football coach at the town’s College of Further Education, was part of the squad at the time and offers his thoughts on the current situation at Victoria Park.

 

 

 

It was almost the same situation in 1998/99 as it is now at the club and I have faith that if we could do it back then, they can do it again this season and then push on.

We were near the bottom of the Football League, if not bottom when Chris Turner came in as manager.

Don't get me wrong, the players cared and wanted to win, however, we just weren't good enough and didn’t have the correct mentality at the time.

Mick Tait was the manager. He was a nice bloke, in fairness probably too nice, he unfortunately lost his job and the club brought in Turner.

The players didn't know him, and we soon got a shock!

The whole structure of the club changed, the professionalism rose dramatically. We thought we were professional before, but it was the little things that started to matter.

Punctuality became imperative. Before, if you were late for away games the bus would wait and excuses would be tolerated, or if people were late for training we would just start five minutes later or when the lads got there.

That's not me having a go at Mick, as I said he was a nice bloke, but he trusted the excuses that were given. Now there were no excuses - the bus would leave at designated time and if you weren't there you were left behind, no excuses!!

Training started when the gaffer said it did. If you were late you were fined. Wearing a shirt and tie for games became the norm- we were role models. Being clean shaven, as a player you don't think it is important but it was and very much so.

The structure and ethos at the club was changing, the gaffer was not settling for mediocre, he was saying this is the way we were going to do things at the club and you are either with us and embrace the changes but if not you will go.

And so that was the case for some players, the fans did not like it because they were seeing some of their favourite players not in the team and eventually moving on. But they didn’t know what was going on behind closed door, when sentiment went out of the window and it was ruthless.

New players were brought in, players with experience. The one I really remember was centre-half Gary Strodder. He was a leader, not the quickest, technically not the best, but a winner.

He put his head where it hurt, made proper tackles - centre forwards knew they were in a game.

We worked for hours on team shape, keeping clean sheets, a team spirit was being built and we started to believe, and that was the most important factor.

We survived and the club just went from strength to strength, the next season reaching the play offs for the first time. The success continued, play offs again the next season.

Unfortunately I left for a new challenge with Darlington, but I was able to watch the club I played a small part in climb the divisions with promotions and going very close to reaching the championship.

That’s why the plight the club is in now hurts. The fans deserve so much more and I believe if the new manager can bring in a few players with a different mentality like we did back then, this will help the young lads and the club can kick on again and survive.