Dave Challinor outlines his 'big concern' at Hartlepool United

Challinor was left deeply frustrated following the 3-0 defeat at Woking as Pools dropped to 11th in the National League table following their sixth defeat in their last 10 games in all competitions.

After the game, Challinor hit out at his players’ performance and he has again criticised the lack of consistency shown by Pools this season.

Challinor said: “The big concern for me is the level of consistency.

"The players will take pats on the back and rightly so when they’ve played well.

"Cass had a great game on Tuesday, Johnno had a great game too but they looked like different players.

"That back four that played on Tuesday apart from Timi slipping, limited King’s Lynn to nothing.

"It was the same back four and they were all over the place. We can look for excuses elsewhere if you like but they’ve got to look at themselves and they’re honest enough to know it wasn’t good enough.

"But the challenge is for them to take it on board and improve from it and not let it happen again.

"If you can’t do the basics then regardless of how talented you are, you won’t play higher than this level and some of them believe they can do that but they need to show that on a consistent basis.”

Challinor added: “The inconsistency you expect it at this level.

"Performance wise, we had some consistency about us but the last few weeks we’ve been up and down with where we’ve been at.

"The best teams, if they’re very good, win leagues but it’s the most consistent teams over the course of the season that are right up there and have the success.

"We haven’t done anything different with our preparation, we’ve prepared the players right for games and showed them what to expect but we’re reliant on them applying that in a game.

"But if you can’t do the basics then you’re not going to get the results you need,” added the Pools boss.

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