Gary Coxall and JPNG are the right people to take Hartlepool United forward

Hartlepool United Chairman Gary Coxall. Picture by FRANK REID

Russ Green is confident Hartlepool United are moving into a new era under owners JPNG Global.

The company, which has bases in London, Dubai and Essex, have taken over from Increased Oil Recovery, who sold Pools after almost 18 years in charge.

Under IOR, Pools have enjoyed their best years, including reaching the League One play-off final in Cardiff in 2005, when they came within eight minutes of reaching the Championship for the first time in the club’s history.

But each of the last three years have been relegation struggles, with IOR looking to sell last season.

They did agree to sell to a consortium, known as TMH (The Monkey Hangers) last December, only to pull out of the process.

But IOR never stopped working behind the scenes to bring in new owners and investment, and the result of that was the arrival of JPNG on Monday.

Green believes it is a “positive” move for Pools and the town and was happy to stay on as chief executive.

“The owners are very forward thinking,” Green told SportMail. “They are very supporter-orientated which is nice to hear and very council-orientated which is also very nice to hear.

“They want to do a lot of things.

“Sometimes a new brush sweeps clean, they have fresh ideas. You sometimes need that new blood, a fresh approach and ideas.

“I think if you amalgamate that with our ways then I think things are looking good.”

After the near-miss with TMH, Green says it was vital this deal was right.

Green said that outgoing chairman Ken Hodcroft had been leading the negotiations with Gary Coxall and JPNG to ensure Pools had the ideal new owners in place.

“Since what happened in January [with TMH], the chairman and his legal people have looked at the new owners,” added the chief executive.

“They have been working behind the scenes and the signs JPNG sent out were very positive.

“Ken has been positive about everything.”