The game is on Boxing day, and the kick off is now 12 noon, having originally been moved forward to 1pm. I wish they’d make up their minds!
The Victoria ground is to the north of the town centre. If you’re driving up from Leeds, you need to leave the A1 at junction 49 and follow the A19 towards Teesside, then the A689 dual carriageway, following the signs for Hartlepool. Continue over the next four roundabouts, following the signs for Town Centre. Go straight over the traffic lights by the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre (...signposted the North, Sunderland, Durham A179, A19). Continue past the Hartlepool Mail (...on your left), and then take the left hand lane into Clarence Road. The ground is about 200 yards along, on the left hand side.
There is a fair sized car park at the ground. Otherwise there is plenty of street parking to be found behind the away end, and you can also park at the ‘Jackson’s Wharf’ pub, which is 5 minutes walk from the ground. Hartlepool’s official website advises you to “keep valuables out of sight”. It won’t be possible to get there from Leeds by train, due to the bank holiday non-service, but for future reference the station is about 10 minutes walk from the Victoria Ground
There are quite a few decent pubs in the area, but it remains to be seen how many will be open on the day. The ‘Corner Flag’ is just outside the ground, and normally welcomes away fans for an admission fee of 50p. Others worth mentioning are the ‘Tavern’ in Church Street (the main road that passes the railway station) and the ‘Brewer and Firkin’ in Whitby Street. And by the marina (obviously found by heading towards the sea) you can find ‘The Old West Quay’ and ‘Jackson’s Wharf’.
The Victoria Ground was improved in the mid 1990's, with the construction of two new stands at one end and a third down one side of the ground, but unfortunately they decided to make the away end all-seater while still giving home fans the option of standing behind the goal at the opposite end. The normal away allocation is 967 seats in the Rink End Stand, where the view is partially blocked by supporting pillars, and the facilities are a little disappointing for a new stand. Their official site notes that this end is named after a long-demolished dance hall “where many a Hartlepool couple first met”. The total capacity is 8,240, so hopefully we’ll get more than the usual away end.
I’m told that the food inside is quite good, especially the absolutely huge meat & potato pies! Oh, and make sure you wrap up warm, because Hartlepool have one of the coldest grounds in the league, thanks to the freezing cold wind coming off the north sea. Prices for away Fans are £20 for Adults with over 65' and Under 16's at £10. They discriminate against away fans by allowing Students to buy tickets at a concessionary price in the home areas of the ground, without extending this privilege to visiting supporters who are still at college. They are only selling home tickets to those on their customer database, and now have only another 400 remaining. We’re not famous any more! If you live in the area you have until the 20th. to get onto their database, see the official Hartlepool site for details.
As far as the future is concerned, Hartlepool have plans to modernize the Mill House Stand, the one side of the ground left untouched in the 1990s, but they have yet to announce when this will happen.
Some of the info in this piece comes from the following two sites:-