Hartlepool boss not satisfied with 3-3 draw

While he was pleased Pools’ determination to get back into the game, the boss admitted he was disappointed with a lacklustre first half display which saw his side trail at the break.

The spirited second half comeback helped to highlight the attacking options Hignett has available this season, but he was left to rue defensive errors which handed the Railwaymen the advantage.

“It’s hard to know what to make of it,” he said.

“I wasn’t pleased first half. I thought we were a little sluggish and stood off them and let them do what they wanted to do. We didn’t really pass the ball and keep it as well as we wanted it.

“It’s the third game in a row we’ve gone behind so I was a little bit disappointed.

“At 3-1 you’re thinking the game’s dead, but credit to the players as they kept going.

“Am I happy with a point? No, I’m never happy with a point.”

Despite trailing 3-1 with just over fifteen minutes remaining, Hignett says he always had faith his sides many attacking options could fire Pools back into the game.

Yet he also admits that it’s disappointing to net as many goals as his side did but not come away with maximum points: “I know I’ve got goals in the team.

“But to come to a place like this and score three and not go away with three points is a bit disappointing.

“But saying that, we could have lost it. It was a really open game and anything could have happened.”

While pleased with the attacking display, the Pools boss admitted he is keen to see the defensive side of Hartlepool’s game improve in the coming weeks.

“The goals they scored were really poor from our point of view,” Hignett added.

“For their second goal the lad managed to get in the box, turn, and get it through two pairs of legs so we should have closed him down and got a block in.

“For the first one, I don’t know where the centre halves were.

“There’s little things like that we need to iron out.

“We aren’t the finished article by any means, but we’re competing and we’re good enough to compete.

“When we are the finished article, I think we’ll be a handful.

“I just thought we were a little bit lazy.

“Everyone is a good player if you stand off them and we did that at periods and let them have the ball and pick passes.

“The minute we got closer it was a different story and we started picking things up.

“I’ve said to the lads that we might make a montage of the goals we’ve conceded this season because some of them have been really poor.

“If we iron that out I think we’ll be a match for anyone in the league.”