Matthew Bates picks out Hartlepool United's star man from Fylde draw

But the caretaker admits it was difficult to criticise any of his back four at the Mill Farm Stadium, despite the fact they shipped three goals.

“I have to have a special mention for Laingy,” said Bates about the central defender, who has been under fire for performances this season.

“He was excellent on the day, but so were the other lads.

“We might have conceded three goals but to me that was one of the best performances individually I have seen from our back four.

“That kind of shows how strange a game it was.

“I thought first half we were great.

“We dealt with them throwing balls at us all half with the wind. Our defence stood up to it.”

After an almost flawless performance in the opening 45, Pools almost threw away any hope of taking something from the clash by conceding three goals in 20-odd second-half minutes.

Bates was amazed his side managed to shoot themselves in the foot so easily after putting in such a solid show before the break.

He said: “In the end we are delighted.

“It was a reward for not giving up.

“Last week you could maybe say we got a lucky point but this time I think we deserved it.

“I think we showed a lot of fighting spirit. That just about sums it up.

“It was a strange one - I was thinking when we were behind ‘how are we 3-1 down here’.

“We grafted so hard in the first half and created so many chances.

“I think the problem was we started the second half a little bit deep.

“We showed a bit of fear being 1-0 up and having something to hang on to. We were made to pay and will have to work on that. We threw everything at them in the last 10 minutes and got our reward.”