On Saturday 20th November our youngest grandson, Dougie Molyneux, celebrated his 11th birthday when he was Mascot at the Hartlepool United v Forest Green Rovers game. It was a very proud moment for all our family to see Dougie walk out on to the pitch with his cousin Luke Molyneux and the rest of the Hartlepool team. Unfortunately, Hartlepool lost to Forest Green Rovers 1-3. But that didn’t dampen our spirits as we were celebrating three family birthdays that weekend, my daughter Jane, my husband Peter and Dougie.
Dougie is following in his cousin Luke’s footsteps. He lives in Pocklington near York and plays in midfield for his local team, Wilberfoss Mavericks. Like Luke, Dougie is a skilful little player – he loves practising his ‘keepie-uppies’ and his current record is 375!
Hartlepool’s next home game is against Rochdale on 8th December. The Manager of Rochdale is Robbie Stockdale who Luke played under at Sunderland U23s. When Robbie was interim Manager for SAFC first team, he gave Luke his debut at the Stadium of Light against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 6th May 2018. Luke played for the full 90 minutes and had a great game. Sunderland won 3-0. Thanks to Robbie, that was the start of Luke’s professional career – long may it continue.
Anne Molyneux (Proud Grandma)