The importance of 3 up 3 down – A National League club in focus

Hartlepool United, a club that has flirted with the prospect of non-league like no other, are now looking for a route back to the Football League. 

Hartlepool United have more cause to sweat than most about the system of promotion and relegation in the basement of the Football League – having been on the positive side of the old re-election system more than anyone else.  

The North East club were re-elected back to the Football League fourteen times between 1924 and 1984. This was back in the day when non-league clubs had to apply for their Football League status, and those at the foot of it could be re-elected. 

Pools were never once voted out, displaying their importance to the football pyramid. 

Hartlepool is a club and town close to my heart with a great story attached. In 2005, just weeks before my first birthday, Hartlepool are in the League One Play-Off final against Sheffield Wednesday at the Millennium Stadium. All my family are in our local pub back in the town watching on, with me raised upon my dad’s shoulders.  

Jon Daly makes it 2-1 to Hartlepool with 20 minutes to play, cue bedlam back home. In the midst of all the celebrations, my dad jumps up subsequently hitting the top off my head off the ceiling. A memory that has amused the family all my life. 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be Pools’ day as they went on to lose in extra time and have never been as close to the Championship since. 

Life-long fan and Hartlepool Mail writer Robbie Stelling spoke to me about the emotions when Hartlepool were finally relegated to non-league for the first time in their history. “I remember when we first got relegated in 2017, we were playing Doncaster Rovers on the final day of the League Two season. 

“Doncaster needed to win to win the League Two title. We needed to win, to give ourselves any chance of staying up. We had sacked our manager about three weeks before, we had an interim team of players and former players. We were one nil down, it looked like for all the world that we were going to be relegated, but there was a belief among the fans that we were destined somehow to avoid relegation.  

“Lo and behold, we introduced a teenage striker, he scored twice to turn the game on its head and until a minute or two to go in the game, we thought that we were going to survive.  

Newport County, in the other game, scored a late goal that meant that they stayed up and we didn’t, and we had to come face to face with a really difficult reality because we’d never seen ourselves as a National League club.” 

It has often felt like what could have been for Pools in recent years, with the aforementioned 2005 Play-Off Final and relegation in 2017. They find themselves back in the National League after a short spell back in League Two.  

Currently, only one team is promoted automatically from the fifth tier, with the second having to win a six-team Play-Off. The three divisions above all have three promotion spots or more. 

The English football pyramid is a real source of pride for our country. Where else in the world would a fifth-tier match in the bitter November cold be attended by over 16,000 people? A record set in a match between Notts County and Yeovil at Meadow Lane in 2022. 

Despite this, it needs a rethink. That is why all 72 National League clubs, between the fifth tier and the National League North and South, have joined together in a plea for an extra promotion spot to the Football League, with an extra relegation place going the opposite direction. In short, the 3 up 3 down system. 

I asked Jeff Stelling, former Soccer Saturday host and Hartlepool United president, how important it is that Hartlepool are part of this movement. “Everybody bangs on about English Football and the benefits of the pyramid, but unless it has firm foundations, it isn’t so strong. 

“It’s ironic how one of the weakest links is the fact that fewer sides are allowed to be promoted from the National League to the Football League. It is incredibly short sighted when you see how well sides who have gone up in recent years have done.  

“It is easy to point at Wrexham who have loads of money but look at Stockport, it wasn’t so long ago that Wycombe were a non-league side too. The list is endless. 

“There are a lot of strong clubs in the National League, and they would only become stronger if they were given a third promotion place.” 

Jeff’s son Robbie revealed some interesting survey results to me: “I was reading just before we came on the survey conducted by the Football Supporters Association. 93% of fans are in favour of the National League 3 up campaign, even 77% of League Two fans are in favour of it. That was quite striking. 

“You would obviously think they would potentially be the supporters least inclined to support this initiative because a change would, in theory, make their clubs more at risk of relegation because there would be a third spot.” he added.  

Robbie also spoke about how the league is a launchpad for future international stars: “Often people don’t realise just how significant a contribution the National League can make to teams higher up the pyramid and even international teams as well. Dan Burn scored the first goal in the Carabao Cup final and obviously has been called up England this week that we are talking. He spent time on loan at Hartlepool’s arch-rivals Darlington, we say that through gritted teeth but it’s fantastic to see him achieve such success.” 

As Robbie said, there is arguably no better present example of a player who cut his teeth at non-league level than Dan Burn, who achieved the dream of every aspiring footballer in recent weeks.  

The perfect blueprint to why the health of the pyramid should be protected.