Doncaster Rovers v Hartlepool United: Fresh start for Keith Curle's side following transfer window overhaul

With the transfer window closed, the focus now solely returns to matters on the field and Keith Curle knows his side have 18 cup finals left this season if they are to stave off the threat of relegation.

Curle was able to bring five new players into his squad on transfer deadline day, 11 in total throughout the window, and he knows a potentially new look Hartlepool side need to start winning games.

“If you ask me if the season starts here again next week, I’ll say yes. If you ask me the week after that, I’ll say yes. We know when the season ends. We know we’ve got 18 games to play. We know they’re vitally important for us to get wins,” Curle told The Mail.

“We’ve got to be ready to get wins. We don’t shy away from the fact we know we need wins. But you don’t win a game in the first minute. You’ve got to be ready to do battle over 95 minutes.”

He added: “We’ve changed the jigsaw puzzle and now we need to put it together and do it bit by bit.

“I know now we’ve got game changers on the pitch and also game changers who’ll be available to come off the bench.”

And Curle will be hoping those potential game changers can help Pools avoid what happened a week ago in their defeat to Colchester United.

In what was another significant fixture at the Suit Direct Stadium, Curle’s side slipped to what he described as a deserved 2-1 defeat against their relegation rivals, adding further pressure on the trip to the Eco-Power Stadium.

“If you were a neutral and you were going through all the statistical data and you had to formulate what you thought the scoreline would have been, it wouldn’t have been 2-1 to Colchester because we created a lot of positive data,” said Curle.

“But results are not based on data. I’m not a fool. I know we lost the game.

“There’s always going to be negativity around a defeat but I don't get overwhelmed by it. I don’t ignore it because the negatives have to get dealt with.”

And Curle will be hoping those negatives can be dealt with and ironed out as over 700 Hartlepool supporters are expected to make the trip to South Yorkshire with a sense of renewed hope following the close of the transfer window, with several new signings in contention to make their debut against Doncaster.

“It’s fantastic,” Curle said of the numbers making the trip.

“They’ll want to see the new players and it was something I said to all the players when I signed them in the conversations I've had with them; it’s a great fanbase.

“But this is what they want. They want you to be able to handle a football, they want you to be a goal threat. They want to see commitment and that you’ll commit to everything that you do and then they will back you.”