Boston United frontman Jacob Hazel upbeat despite "disappointing" defeat to Pools

The 30-year-old scored his eighth goal in 13 games and almost added a second when he lobbed Pools goalkeeper Adam Smith after the break, only for an unfortunate bounce of the ball to take his effort over the bar. The indefatigable frontman, who also scored against Pools in the reverse, caused the home side plenty of problems with his determined play.

The Pilgrims had been targeting a sixth successive away win which could have moved them out of the relegation zone for the first time since Coughlan replaced Ian Culverhouse in November. It's been a challenging season for the Pilgrims, who won promotion to the National League via the National League North play-offs last term but parted company with Norwich legend Culverhouse following a run of 13 games without a win. Despite picking up three points against Braintree in Coughlan's first game in charge, the Pilgrims didn't seem to have a prayer at the turn of the year after another frustrating winless run. However, a shock win over title-chasing York at the end of January seemed to spark the Lincolnshire side into life and Boston arrived at the Prestige Group Stadium unbeaten in their last six matches and on the cusp of climbing out of the bottom four.

Despite decent backing from more than 260 travelling fans, Boston struggled to get going against a Pools side who hadn't won at home since New Year's Day but produced one of their best performances of an underwhelming campaign. Both Hazel and Jai Rowe went close to getting their side back into the game with the score 2-1 in the second half, but some careless defending condemned the Pilgrims to a first defeat in seven matches.

The result leaves Boston 23rd and three points behind fifth from bottom Dagenham and Redbridge but with two games in hand; in other words, the Pilgrims still have a fighting chance of pulling off an unlikely escape from relegation. And Hazel, who enjoyed a prolific spell at rivals Darlington, refused to be too downbeat after the game and challenged his side to bounce back when they host play-off chasing Southend on Tuesday night.

"The way it happened today was disappointing," he told Boston's official club website.

"We're in good form, they aren't in such good form. It's like a rock and a hard place, something was always going to give at some point for them, and something was always going to give at some point for us.

"We just have to dust ourselves down, we have to stay positive. We'll take our medicine tonight but we'll roll into Tuesday and hopefully we can get back on it."

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