Paul 'Goffy' Gough looks back on campaign to reward Hartlepool United's history making heroes

It all started at Easter when Pools great John McGovern was back in town for a special 60-year anniversary celebration organised by his friend Goffy.

The ex-Nottingham Forest captain held aloft the European cup twice, but back in 1968 he was part of Hartlepools United, as the club was then called, that won the club’s first ever Football League promotion from the old Fourth Division.

It was revealed by McGovern that he and some of the squad had carried the disappointment of never having received medals for making history.

Goffy said: “I had chatted with John many times in the past and it was clear that the medal situation had left him feeling a touch saddened that he had nothing to show for it, he was just a teenager when it all happened.

"I was able to put that situation right and set out to find the other members of the squad or their families on my journeys across the UK and beyond."

The interim 56 years had taken its toll on the Pools heroes with many of the team no longer alive.

But over the following months, Goffy was able to arrange and deliver medals to players including McGovern, Alan Goad in Canada, John Gill, Tony Bircumshaw, Brian Drysdale, and the family of physio Tommy Johnson.

Goffy said: “Some of the former players are now in care and two are fighting personal battles with dementia – that was difficult to witness and hear the sadness of the families.

“It was a series of life lessons as I continued the journey to meet the legends to present them with their much-deserved medals.”

But he said it was clear that the ‘never say die’ mantra of the club still lived on in the former players and unearthed lots of entertaining tales from the era.

He added: “More than anything, the journey 56 years on confirmed a unique bond in the mix of young and old, unwanted and untried players that the Pools fans adored because they knew they were giving their all.”