Hartlepool United's players must shoulder responsibility

Pools suffered their first away National League loss in eight games when they were turned over 3-0 in South East London.

Featherstone admitted Pools were not good enough in the final thirds of the field at Stonebridge Road, where they succumbed to goals by Myles Weston, Danny Kedwell and Luke Coulson.

Confidence had been high after Pools had cured their stuttering home form with last Tuesday’s 4-0 romp against Halifax – only to lose for the first time on the road since August 19.

“After Tuesday, we really thought we could kick on and give a positive performance,” said Featherstone.

“The players have to take responsibility for that.

“We got our attacking players on the ball but we just weren’t good enough in the final third.

“And when you are not good enough in the final third you have to be spot on at the back.

“We’ve conceded bad goals, it’s disappointing, they were preventable.

“We’ve not been good enough at both ends.”

Featherstone says the frustrationis intensified by the fact they could be sat on the verge of the play-offs.

A win on their first visit to Ebbsfleet would have put Pools ninth and just a point off the top seven.

“We’ve been here a few times, haven’t we?” said the midfielder

“We’ve probably had the same conversation a few more times than we’d like to have had.

“Since the first six games, we’ve come good, won half of our matches to be right up there in the form table.

“It’s really disappointing we could not put on a performance against Ebbsfleet when we wanted to.

“It seems every time we get near the play-offs we drop points.

“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and find some consistency.

“Consistency is key in this division.

“Everyone seems to be beating everyone in this league so if a club can put a run of wins together then you can be right in the mix.”

Featherstone admitted it was a disappointing way to end an unbeaten away record in the league which stretched back three months.

“Our away form has been pretty good, bar Morecambe in the FA Cup,” said the 29-year-old. “It’s the manner in which we lost having had such a good performance and win against Halifax.

“Fair play to Ebbsfleet they were better than us in the last two thirds.

“But it felt the game passed us by and there was no real fight.”

Featherstone did say had Pools taken one of their chances when the score was 1-0 – Devante Rodney was denied by the keeper and Louis Laing headed over from a corner – it could have been a different outcome. “Of course,” he said. “Goals change games, you’d like to think if we had pulled one back we could have come back to win.”