News today of the announcement of a merger between two of the north-east’s Championship clubs, Hartlepool United and Red Star Sunderland. The new club will be known as Hartlepool Petrochemical, based in the town and who will assume the history of United, four times winners of the Football Alliance Championship in its first 13 seasons, and thus end three and a half decades of underachievement at Sunderland, who at times promised much, occasionally challenging for the title, but ultimately failed to deliver on the trophy front. By way of a curious coincidence, Hartlepool United and Red Star Sunderland met in what proved to be their last ever matches as such, ending in a 5 - 0 victory for the 'Pool in the final round of Championships fixture of last season.
The club colours will be closely related to Hartlepool United’s - light blue and white halved shirts with Sunderland’s red star on the left, white panel, white shorts and red socks with white tops.
Being an amalgamation of two clubs from the same division, Hartlepool Petrochemical will take a place in the Championship, but the equation of two-into-one means that a place in the top flight becomes vacant, of course, which the governing body have announced, somewhat opaquely, will be allocated “after due consideration of a number of factors”.
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