Hartlepool nervously face up to dropping out of the Football League for the first time in their history

Hartlepool embraced and became synonymous with Brexit, but now the north-east town faces a departure of an altogether different kind — something fans are grimly referring to as ‘FLexit’

Hartlepool stand on the verge of dropping out of the Football League (Getty)

Hartlepool, the north-east of England, Thursday morning: colourful, celebratory and slightly surprising, there is a poster which proclaims the town to be a destination, a resort, a place people should visit to make them feel better. ‘Healthful Hartlepool’, it declares.

It is quite striking, as is the fact it is in the local museum.

The poster dates from Victorian Britain. Walk two minutes across the Asda car park, the railway line and stand outside Victoria Park: few are making the same comment about the town or its football club, Hartlepool United, in 2017.

Today Hartlepool, which embraced and became synonymous with Brexit - and a poster-boy for it - fears another kind of departure, something called ‘FLexit’.

After 96 years’ continuous presence in the Football League, Hartlepool teeter on the brink of leaving. Even if tomorrow’s game against Doncaster Rovers at Victoria Park is won, ‘Pools’ may still be relegated from a Football League it joined as a member of the Third Division North in 1921.

It has been a very difficult season for the County Durham club (Getty)

“You absolutely do not want to be part of a side that takes Hartlepool out of the Football League for the first time in its history,” says full-back Carl Magnay, emphatically.

But that is the prospect. And this is a fragile team at a nervous club in a critical situation. Hartlepool have not won since mid-March.

“We’re aware of the history of the club, we know it’s never been outside the Football League,” adds Magnay. “We’re aware of the good people who work at the club behind the scenes - or at least I hope the lads are.

“Jobs are at risk, livelihoods. I hope that’s ingrained in everybody’s minds and our performance reflects that. It’s vitally important that we give 100%. Saturday is an occasion where there isn’t an option.”

Born nearby in Gateshead, Magnay was on Chelsea’s books for five years and has seen professional football from that perspective.

But particularly in smaller, branch-line towns, membership of the old 92 Football League senior clubs retains real significance. It keeps a club on English football’s map. Leaving brings a loss of status, money, profile and momentum: Stockport County and York City are just two formerly prominent clubs who can vouch for that.

Jeff Stelling is the club's most famous supporter (Getty)

Newport County are another. They were out of the League from 1988 to 2014 and became known as ‘The Exiles’. They can also be relegated from League Two tomorrow. Newport, at home to Notts County, start the 5.30 kick-offs two points above Hartlepool.

Both threatened clubs have changed their manger recently. But while Newport have had an exceptional ‘bounce’ under Mike Flynn, Hartlepool stumbled on until 13 days ago with Dave Jones.

His removal came 48 hours after Jeff Stelling, Hartlepool United’s highly-visible ‘president’, erupted on Sky TV pleading for Jones to go. Pools had just lost at home to Barnet.

Jones, a former Premier League manager of long experience, had been appointed by new owner-chairman Gary Coxall. On Tuesday night Coxall announced that he was following Jones out the door. Strong and stable, it isn’t.

Into this has stepped 30 year-old player Matthew Bates and three others from the squad and coaching staff. This committee’s first game was at Cheltenham last Saturday, where Pools fans turned up dressed as mime artists – faces painted white, striped jerseys and by the end, downcast expressions. Hartlepool lost 1-0.

The fans behaviour is a last away-day tradition – they went to Charlton dressed as Smurfs in 2012 – but so, recently, is struggle and uncertainty.

The smurfs cheers on their team (Getty)

Ronnie Moore engineered the ‘Great Escape’ two seasons ago when he somehow turned around a side that had won three of its first 24 matches. Last season Hartlepool were in danger until March under Craig Hignett.

Hignett was dismissed this January when Jones came in. He lasted 18 matches and is said to have alienated players: after defeat at Leyton Orient Jones asked for all those who had won something to raise their hands. He did.

Hartlepool United were creaking. Yet it could have been worse. Before Coxall, who for some reason promised to by the old turnstiles from Upton Park (and hasn’t), a group called TMH – The Monkey Hangers – were trying to purchase the for-sale club. One of them is due to stand trial for fraud soon.

Add in the two HMRC winding-up orders from this season and the overall impression is not buoyant. The new power at the club is Pamela Duxbury who on Thursday said that she owns 12.5% of the club’s holding company and who wants to engage with the Supporters Trust. She said relegation would mean an initial loss of £350,000.

And ultimately, predictably, this is a story about investment. For almost two decades the club had been owned and funded by Increased Oil Recovery, based in Aberdeen but with a quiet Norwegian oilman, Berge Larsen, behind it. Around 2014 IOR sought to get out. They left a hole estimated at £1m a year.

Yet there is some confidence within Victoria Park that FLexit would not mean disaster. Bates says he is not stressing the “severity” of the moment.

He and others remind outsiders that this is not an impossible club – as recently as 2013 Hartlepool completed a sixth consecutive season in League One. There are expected to be over 7,000 at tomorrow’s match (live on Sky) and there has been a queue for tickets all week. In that sense, Hartlepool United are, as it says on their badge, ‘the town’s club’.

But the town is not healthful, those tickets cost £5, money is scarce. Amid it all, Bates adds: “We have to try and get out of that cycle we have been in over recent years, whichever league we are in.”