DAVE CHALLINOR drove past Hartlepool United's Victoria Park ground on the way to training on Wednesday morning.
A long queue of fans lined the pavement waiting for the ticket office to open. Many had camped overnight.
The Pools boss didn't need reminding of what this afternoon's game against Torquay means to the town, but it did emphasise it.
“We drove past the ground on our way into training about eight o'clock and there was at least a 100 metre queue of supporters that had been there since last night,” Challinor tells The NLP on Wednesday afternoon.
“With there being such a high demand for what seem like Golden Tickets, there were people going to unbelievable degrees to make sure they can be part of it.
“From my perspective and from our perspective as a club, we don't need telling what it means to supporters. I've said it before, they've been part of some disappointing times over the last, more than few, years. We know the importance of the football club and the team to the people of the town.
“We know where we are and what the supporters are craving. Hopefully we can provide that for them.”
In-form Rhys Oates hit the decisive goal at Stockport County to give Challinor and his squad the chance to end the club's Non-League stay after four years. Pools will have around 3,100 fans inside Bristol City's Ashton Gate – and plenty more in front of their TVs.
“We had the situation with no away fans in the ground but we'd have sold any allocation at Stockport County,” Challinor says. “If we could have had had 20,000 tickets at Bristol, there would have been 20,000 Hartlepool fans there. If it was at Wembley, it would have been a whole lot more. So there is some there and that's great, but we have to recognise there is a bigger picture with 20,000 that aren't there back in Hartlepool watching on TV. Their hopes ands aspirations are in our hands as well so we use them as motivating factor.
Massive
“The ones in the ground are the fortunate ones to really have an impact on how the game will go. They will be massive for us. The atmosphere we had at home against Bromley with 1,700 in was amazing. Double that, I'm sure it will be unbelievable.”
It didn't take Challinor long to realise quite how seriously the town takes its football team.
“I knew what I was going into, but until you're actually in it and feel it…” Challinor says. “Towards the back end of last season when we got a run going at the Vic, we had Stockport, Notts County, and some big games that we won, we built optimism and momentum.
“From that point on, although along the way you'll have some bumps in the road, it's sort of snowballed and come to this point.
“Where the ground is, it's slap bang in the middle of the town. Everyone knows everyone else's business – on very few occasions will you get a signing and it not be leaked out. Everyone knows everything.
“Everyone in the town will have someone that either works at the football club or knows someone who is a volunteer. Nothing is a secret. It highlights that it is people's lives.
“Everyone will have opinions. When you have a bigger club, the spread of opinion is greater – be that their thoughts on a player or a game. You've got to be brave enough within your feelings to do what you feel is right, but knowing what you feel is right – and what is right at the time – probably isn't right for everyone. That's just the thing of it. Football is like that.”
With the context of the club's first period in Non-League seeing financial turmoil before Raj Singh and Jeff Stelling saved the club and subsequent off-field restructuring, the turnaround since Challinor took the job in 2019 has been quite something.
A serial promotion winner as a manager with Colwyn Bay and AFC Fylde, the former Tranmere Rovers defender has continued to show why he is thought of as one of the best managers outside the EFL.
Has even the 45-year-old been surprised by how they've flipped their fortunes?
“I suppose before you take a job you try to do your own due diligence as to where the club is at,” Challinor says. “The club has undergone drastic change over the last 18 months. When we went in, it probably still had a League One infrastructure in terms of staffing, in some instances, budgets, in some instances the amount of money being wasted.
Building
“We've really gone back to bare bones to try and build the club back up. There is no more effective way of building a club than ultimately getting from the National League into the Football League because of what that brings in terms of sponsorship and funding, support and all those different aspects.
“So that would have a huge bearing on the club. We have come a long way in 18 months but that is part of a journey to build it back up to becoming a sustainable, efficient football club.”
Like many ex-Football League clubs before them, Hartlepool have found that cracking the National League code isn't easy.
Fans will remember the days of pushing for promotion into the Championship and the reality of Non-League's punishing and competitive top division can be hard to get to grips with.
“It's around controlling expectations without underselling yourself,” Challinor says. “Statistics tell you, and normally they're not overly wrong, how difficult it is to get out.
“A lot of teams who come down will be of a mindset you've got two years to get out because after that point your parachute payments stop and all your funding gets cut. There can be a panic around that.
“Anyone who comes down into the National League, realistically, is doing so because something has gone wrong. Be that the club and not being managed, or a team that has fallen into a decline they've not been able to stop.
“What you've got to do is halt that when you're coming into a difficult division.
“If you've been used to losing games and relegated, it is difficult to all of a sudden think that the difference between League Two and the National League is substantially different, you're going to be the best team and you're going to win games. Sometimes supporters expect that and it can become difficult.”
Challinor's team have certainly helped reverse that sinking feeling across the loyal fanbase.
And it's why the boss is so proud of the team that will take the pitch today, no matter the outcome.
“I am always proud of my teams,” Challinor says. “It's different from being a player. To be out there playing for yourself, the team and the club is a completely different feeling from the one that the team out on the pitch is one you've put together and they're doing their best for you.
“They've worked their socks off to get where they are. They've given themselves a chance and we will do everything we can to take that chance.
“But, regardless, I will be hugely proud of what we've done this season.”
