Dave Challinor’s key message to Hartlepool United fans ahead of play-offs at Victoria Park

Pools host Bromley (2:30pm kick-off) in front of around 1,700 fans for the play-off eliminator round match. The game will be decided on the day, via extra-time and penalties if necessary, with the losing side’s season coming to an end.

And after waiting all season for fans to return to Victoria Park, Hartlepool will now experience back to back matches in front of their supporters in little over a week.

But unlike last Saturday’s 4-0 win over Weymouth, the pressure is on Pools to deliver and not slip up against Bromley.

Challinor admitted that nerves are natural going into these big games but he hopes the crowd will be able to carry on the support they displayed last time out.

“Hopefully the atmosphere will be exactly the same,” he told The Mail. “We played well on Saturday and the atmosphere was great but we didn't really have to call upon the crowd to have an impact."

And given the nature of this weekend’s match, the Pools boss has called upon the supporters to get behind the players and make the home advantage count.

“Hopefully we won’t to need rely on them too much on Sunday either but we go into it in the knowledge that we might have to call on them and there might be times that we need them,” Challinor added.

“We need to make sure we really have a home advantage with the crowd behind us and I have no doubt that will be the case.”

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