Hartlepool defender: It's a relegation battle

That was the admission from Scott Harrison after Pools fell to a 2-0 defeat against Exeter at Victoria Park.

Pools are four points above the drop zone having missed the chance to put some daylight between themselves and second-bottom Dagenham & Redbridge, who did not play at the weekend.

“We are in a relegation battle, aren’t we?” said the former Sunderland centre-half. “There is no denying it

“I think it’s sinking in now with the lads that we are.”

The defender showed typical honesty when he owned up to short-comings for both away goals and said the team know the current position is not good enough.

Pools have put in some promising performances, only to follow those up with below-par displays.

“We are not consistent enough,” he explained. “We played well against Wycombe after carrying on from how we’d played against Plymouth and Derby.

“Then we go to Accrington and played horrifically.

“It’s annoying we can’t find any consistency.”

Harrison says Pools must bounce back at Notts County on Saturday and use it as a launchpad for a surge.

“We need to go on a run like we had at the start of the season, “ he said. “But it should not just be about runs, we should be aiming to win every game we play.

“We have people coming back from injury so our squad is bigger.

“We have a lot of games coming up so if we win one of the early matches then that might set us up for a run.”

Harrison owned up to both away goals, Alex Nicholls beating him to a header for the opener before her outfoxed him late on to send over the cross which Joel Grant netted.

“Both goals could have been prevented by myself,” said the 22-year-old.

“I’ve not got there for the first goal and then for the second I thought I’d done well to get out there and force him back then he’s done me with a little trick and I bought it.”