Hartlepool run out to Bat Out of Hell as club pay tribute to fan Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf’s back catalogue was ringing around the Suit Direct Stadium as Hartlepool paid tribute to the singer in the build-up to their home clash with Stevenage.

The larger-than-life American, whose death at the age of 74 was announced by his family on Friday, adopted the League Two club after being asked to appear on Sky Sports’ Soccer AM programme in 2003.

A number of hits, including Paradise By The Dashboard Light, were played before kick-off, while the team ran out to Bat Out of Hell.

The official matchday team sheet also paid tribute to their celebrity fan.

“In loving memory of Meat Loaf 1947-2022,” topped the print-out, with famous lyric ‘And I would do anything for love…’ placed above the two teams.

In an interview with talkSport Magazine, Meat Loaf revealed he had been attracted to Hartlepool by the town’s monkey legend.

He said: “I was going on Soccer AM and they said ‘do you have a team that you support, Manchester United, Liverpool?’, and I was going, ‘that’s boring!’.

“It’s just like a celebrity to go on and go ‘oh, I’m a Liverpool fan, I support whoever’, the teams who have always been at the top.

“So I started looking and I went to the second division, no, no, and I got down to the third division and I said, ‘There’s a cool name, Hartlepool, in the third division’.

“I found out that the city back a long time ago, the claim was that a monkey washed ashore and the whole city thought it was a Frenchman and they hung him, and I said, ‘That’s perfect’.

“Then what I did was I started researching all the players from Hartlepool, so when I got on Soccer AM, I knew all the players, I knew the last game, I knew who were the big scorers, I knew who the coach was.”