Hanging In The Balance

Hartlepool's 'owner' Gary Coxall has quit the club, and pushed the agenda towards supporter ownership on the eve of their do-or-die last game of the season to secure League survival.

The Monkey Hangers need to win their final match, at home to title contenders Doncaster, and hope Newport fail to beat mid-table Notts County in order to secure their League Two place. They have failed to record a win in the last ten matches, a run that cost manager Dave Jones his job, and have slashed admission prices for Saturday's game to £5 in a bid to pack out the ground.

Quite why a Dubai based recruitment firm owned a Northern football side with a Council owned ground has always been puzzling. JPNG took over less than two years ago with an Ilford, Essex UK base and immediately raised eyebrows. Coxall arrived with a partner, Peter Goldberg, whose disappearance from the scene led to a series of cash crises that led to a pair of winding-up petitions and wages being delayed.

In March this year, a Debenture was registered against the club at Companies House, one of four charges currently secured on the assets of the club including the lease of the ground. The 'borrower' on the debenture is Coxall as Chairman of the club. The 'lender' John Blackledge of Sage Investments Limited. The deal was brokered by Matt Haycox for Access Finance in Leeds. Whether Haycox is the same person listed at Companies House as a disqualified Director is unknown, nor would it prevent him from brokering the deal.

According to Companies House, Sage Investments has a Director who resigned in 2004 called Pamela Jane Duxbury. Coxall has handed the Chairman's role to the club's recently installed Finance Director - Pam Duxbury - apparently working on behalf of Sage, but infers from his statement that he retains ownership of the club.

Quite the extent of the debt to Sage Investments, or the current ownership picture of the club, remains up in the air. Debate rages on what percentages of the club Coxall, Sage, and Goldberg own with little firm evidence

However if Coxall was a poor choice of owner, the other option on the table was even worse. Peter Harris and Stephen Murrall, of "The Monkey Hangers" consortium who attempted a takeover prior to JPNG, are now facing a fraud trial relating to a series of people and HMRC in the run up to their bid failure.

Duxbury has been quick to pursue ownership talks with the Supporters Trust, holding a meeting on the evening of Coxall's announcement, but the Trust say they have no short or long term agenda to own the club.

Failure on Saturday could well see another HUFC plunged into the abyss.