Craig Hignett: Hartlepool United are not scared of anyone!

The Pools squad returned to work today to begin preparing for Saturday’s League Two trip to Crawley Town.

Belief is high in the management and squad after Pools extended their unbeaten sequence to three matches with a 0-0 draw at Newport County.

“We don’t fear anyone,” Hignett told SportMail.

“You saw that against Northampton, who had won 10 in a row, and at Barnet.

“They had the second best home record in League Two but we brushed them aside.

“We’ve beaten Dagenham then gone to Newport and got a point, which was the least we deserved.

“I thought we deserved to win.”

Crawley are in good nick, the Sussex outfit boasting wins this month over Newport and Luton - both with clean sheets - and draws with Plymouth and Morecambe.

But Pools are looking decent themselves and Hignett puts that down to unity and self-belief.

“You can’t keep clean sheets like that unless you have a team effort and that was on Tuesday night,” he said.

“There was not one weakness, everyone put a shift in.

“You can see the belief in the players, they believe in what they are doing, that’s great for me as a manager.

“It’s another long trip for us but we’ll go there with confidence after two wins and a draw.

“The games are coming thick and fast and that’s how we want it.”

Hignett hopes to have a full squad to choose from and is unlikely to deviate much, or anything, from the starting XI which excelled at Newport.

Pools could not apply a finishing touch at Rodney Parade but that was as much to do with the difficult pitch condition rather than wasteful shooting.

The only potential change would be at the back where Hignett hopes to have Rob Jones available.

With the giant centre half still not feeling 100% on Monday when Pools set off for South Wales, the boss decided against taking him.

But he will hope that a few days off could do the trick, though it would be hard for Hignett to leave out either Matthew Bates or Adam Jackson, who were excellent in the draw with Newport.