Cloughie's Hartlepool years remembered in a new book - and there's loads about life in the town in the 60s

Christopher Hull, born and brought up in London, has followed Pools since 1978 and said: “There was just something about the name of the club, Hartlepools United, which stuck out.

"People thought it was a spelling mistake with the extra s.”

Pools is a passion which has stuck with him since his primary school days and has led to his new book called ALCHEMY: Brian Clough & Peter Taylor at Hartlepools United.

The book will be out next month, with an endorsement from legendary commentator John Motson, and it scrutinises life in town in the 60s.

The History Press publication looks at how the dynamic duo, who went on to become one of football’s greatest partnerships, cut their managerial teeth in Clarence Road.

This was Hartlepool, a town where “The seagulls dominate the pigeons for the bronze heads of two nineteenth century industrialists in central Hartlepool”, said an extract from the book.

It looks at sea coaling, the docks, sand dunes (used for decades for Pools players to train) and the steel industry.

After his playing career was ended by injury in Sunderland, Clough became a fledgling manager down the road at a place where success was rare at the time.

“A new manager’s backside would barely warm the dugout before it was booted like a defensive clearance onto Clarence Road.

"To take on the manager’s job at Hartlepools United was to gullibly go where all others – bar Westgarth and Williams – had failed before,” said the book.

"Gloom and doom reigned over the Cinderella club of north-east football, where re-election was a state of mind. Clough, soon joined by Taylor, therefore waded into a sea of challenges.”

It relives the days when ‘the Headland to Church Street bus slowed down on Clarence Road to give upper-deck passengers a bird’s-eye view of the game.’

There are references to players who lived under the Clough years such as Ernie Phythian and Brian Drysdale and memories of Brian telling the Mail that Pools would soon be ‘soaring up the league’.

Christopher said: “I didn’t want to make it a nostalgia fest. I wanted to make it inspirational and factual.

"Clough’s first day at the club was 11 days before I was born.”

But it wasn’t long before the manager was making a difference and the book says: “Clough’s instructions to left-back Brian Drysdale ahead of the game were to ‘kick the winger into the docks’. “

Ernie Phythian gave his side the lead after 14 minutes and they never looked back.

"Ernie bagged a brace, as did Cliff Wright, his first an overhead kick. A pitch invasion by ‘hordes of youngsters’ greeted his second as they ran out 4–1 winners.”

Pools avoided re-election that season and in the close season, players such as John Sheridan and Tony Bircumshaw arrived, often thanks to Peter Taylor’s connections, said the book.

Results improved but by April, promotion was beyond the team despite some encouraging performances.

Pools were eighth. All eyes were focused on building for another campaign until Derby stepped in and the dynamic duo began the next stage of their epic story.

Alchemy will be published in hardback on September 15 at £20 and copies are available from https://lnk.to/AlchemyBookWB

Buy the next issue of the Hartlepool Mail on August 25 for your chance to win a copy of the book