Hartlepool United Football Club is an English association football club based in the town of Hartlepool, County Durham. The club was founded in 1908, and its first team played in the North-Eastern League from then until 1921, when the Football League formed a new Third Division based in the north of England. Hartlepool have never played above the third tier of English football, nor have they won a divisional title, but they remained a member of the Football League for 89 consecutive seasons before returning to non-league football in 2017. They hold the record for applications for re-election, with fourteen – three to the Third Division North and a divisional record eleven to the Fourth Division – and all fourteen were successful. Their highest league placing was second in the Third Divisio