Today I'm going back 42 years to 1980 and York City's visit to the Victoria Ground, Hartlepool for their second game of the season: a League Cup 1st Round 2nd Leg game against the Monkey Hangers of Hartlepool.
Hartlepool United were originally founded as Hartlepools United in 1908 because there was more than one Hartlepool: West Hartlepool and Hartlepool itself. In 1968 the "s" was dropped when the two Hartlepools were merged to form the new Borough of Hartlepool. If ever a team is entitled to use the suffix "United" then this is surely the one! The other notable and rather enjoyable thing about Hartlepool is their nickname: not the "Pools" version but rather "the Monkey Hangers". That particular nickname was derived from local legend that has it that, during the Napoleonic Wars, a French ship was wrecked just off the Hartlepool coast with all lives lost except for the ship's monkey who was washed up on the shore dressed in a French uniform allegedly for the amusement of the demised crew. The locals who had seen neither a Frenchman nor a monkey before put the monkey on trial accused of being a French spy and, when the money failed to speak up in it's own defence, it was hanged! The term Monkey Hanger was ever after used to deride the residents of the area and, as these things often are, was eventually reclaimed by those same locals as a kind of badge of honour. In 1999 the new Hartlepool United furry mascot was named "H'Angus" (ponder that one for a moment won't you?) and in 2002, the wearer of that mascot costume ran for office as H'Angus and became the first directly elected Mayor of Hartlepool! Honestly! Sadly he was forbidden from wearing the monkey costume on official mayoral business.
The programme is a thing of beauty isn't it? It carries all the hallmarks of a classic programme from my point of view, containing manager's notes, team line-ups and one or two other pieces of reading material. The cover is bright and clear and clearly shows the name of the opposition, the date and the competition (many, particularly from the lower leagues, do not). Absent from the cover is any form of sponsorship whatsoever. Try and find a programme like that these days!
I covered the programme from the 1st Leg a few days ago so you might recall that City won that game 2-1 at Bootham Crescent. This game, bringing with it the opportunity of a bumper pay day from drawing a top First Division side in the 2nd Round was therefore important to both sides and City delivered the chance by gaining a goalless draw and a 2-1 aggregate victory. Sadly for York however they drew a less than glamourous Second Division Bristol Rovers who they defeated 2-1 at home in the 1st Leg before succumbing 1-0 at Eastville to be eliminated on the away goals rule which operated in the competition at the time. League Cup winners that season were Liverpool who eventually defeated West Ham United 2-1 in a Replay at Villa Park after an initial 1-1 draw at Wembley AET.
CRB Match No. 94
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