Honour relishing the Hartlepool United class of 1991 reunion

It’s 25 years since Pools recorded the second promotion in the club’s history, Division Four to Division Three coming 23 years after Gus McLean and Co moved up a notch for a single season.

Brian Honour, Joe Allon, Paul Baker, Keith Nobbs and all will be back together this week to mark the anniversary.

Joe Allon heads the goal for Hartlepool United over Northampton Town in 1991

They were pipped by Darlington for the title that season, but promotion was ample reward for a team that, just 16 month earlier were rooted to the foot of the Football League with nine points from 18 games.

The bulk of the strugglers formed the basis of the successful team, transformed under the hard-nosed managerial style of Cyril Knowles.

MANAGER: Cyril Knowles

They will be reunited on Friday. And sharing stories over a pint will come naturally.

Brian Honour, the player of the year that season, recalled: “It was a special time. Ask me about 1993 or 1987 and I might not be able to answer – ask me about 1991 and it’s all there. You can name the team straight away, formation, systems, games.

“We had something special as a group. We used to go out every Wednesday night to 42nd Street and if you didn’t go out you got hammered by the lads.

“It was a regular thing – we used to drink with the supporters, have a pint with the Moose Men and that’s how it was, as we knew them by their names. It was a fantastic team spirit we had.

“When we were promoted and the club took us away, everyone of us went. We all got on, no bad eggs in the dressing room.

“We were winners, and we had some real strong characters – John MacPhail, Paul Baker, Joe Allon.

“We all wanted to win, we had that about us, yet we changed quickly from being a losing team.

“I’d been there since 1985 and only knew struggles, but we should have went up in 1986/7. In 1991 it all clicked.’’

Things took off for the final run-in. Pools were 11th in mid-March when manager Cyril Knowles took ill, diagnosed with a brain tumour which took his life the following year.

They went on a 14-game unbeaten run that propelled them to third come the end of the season.

Honour recalled: “Everything went for us, even with Cyril taking ill and losing him as manager. We were very much mid-table stuff really – we would win one, draw two, lose one and then suddenly it fired up.

“We lost at Lincoln, and then went to Aldershot in midweek. Straight there, straight back, beans on toast at four o’clock and we won 5-1.

“Paul Dalton was on fire, you can see me doing a somersault celebrating after one of his goals – everyone was on a high – and we took off.

“We were playing two games a week, we had a lot to catch up, and it was play, win, rest, play, win, rest. There was no magic formula.’’

There was a huge change in outlook at the old, three-sided Victoria Ground in the early part of 1990.

The harsh regime of Knowles, and his fondness for ‘murderball’ - an all-in, full-blown training game when carnage ensued amongst his players – was replaced by a relaxed attitude under Alan Murray.

It’s fair to say Murray, a former Middlesbrough midfielder working in the club’s commercial department, was a shock, and inspired, appointment.

“It was boot camp under Cyril, and me and Dalts used to get hammered off him – I don’t think he liked wingers because he was a full back! But at times his words used to go in one ear and out the other, it became too regular at times.

“It was aggressive, training and matches, and you were scared to get the ball because you were scared of making a mistake.

“Then Alan Murray took over. We all got called to a meeting, Garry Gibson stood up at the front and we all expected Pop Robson to take over - he was a lovely bloke, a good coach, who didn’t get the recognition he deserved under Cyril or Alan.

“Then the chairman said ‘right lads, you know Cyril is poorly and he’s not coming back. We are giving the job to Alan Murray’.

“Alan Murray? Who’s he? It was like giving it to Frankie Baggs or John Breward, someone in the offices.

“I’d seen him around, but didn’t even know he was a football man. He came in and told us to go out and play.

“He said ‘you are better than what you are, just go out and play, get on with it’. It was so different to what we were used to.’’

It worked. Flair players like Honour, Dalton and Rob McKinnon shone: “We couldn’t wait for games – we never felt we would lose.

“We were so relaxed. Cyril was needed to shake us up, but - and it’s not nice to say – I don’t think we would have got promoted if it wasn’t for Alan taking over.’’

Twelve months ago it was the turn of the 2005 play-off finalists to get back together to great acclaim. Joel Porter even returned from Australia for the occasion.

Honour mused: “A lot of people ask how our team would have fared against the 2005 team that got to Cardiff. All I can say is that a lot of our team went on to play higher.

“Kevin Poole, Paul Baker, Paul Dalton, Rob McKinnon became an international, Joe Allon to Chelsea, John Tinkler, Don Hutchinson to Liverpool and Steve Fletcher at Bournemouth.

“Had we kept that squad together, who knows where we could have gone.’’

A limited number of tickers, priced £20, remain available for the 1991 squad reunion, to be held at Seaton Social Club on Friday evening. The Hartlepool and District Hospice are the beneficiaries of the evening. For info and tickets call 07986 779471.