FA Cup hero Josh Hawkes keen to repay faith of Hartlepool United boss Dave Challinor

A sublime extra-time winner from Josh Hawkes sealed Hartlepool United’s place in the FA Cup third round – and the promising midfielder is aiming to keep repaying the faith shown by Dave Challinor.
Josh Hawkes of Hartlepool United.Josh Hawkes of Hartlepool United.
Josh Hawkes of Hartlepool United.

Pools will travel to League One Oxford United in the next round after the 1-0 victory over Exeter City at Victoria Park on Tuesday.

Challinor has only been in the role since November 16, however he has already made an impact on his squad as Hawkes was keen to point out post match.

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Hawkes told the Mail: “He spoke to me after the Woking game and just obviously said what I need to improve on and what I’ve been doing well so he’s been brilliant with me and hopefully I just keep rewarding him by scoring goals and getting assists.”

Hawkes missed out on selection early on in the season due to injury, something which he said was deeply frustrating, adding: “At the start of the season I was just coming from injury so it wasn’t the perfect start because coming from last year I wanted to try and push on this year and play as many games as I could but it wasn’t to be.”

However he is hoping that this match winning display will have impressed his manager and see him get more consistent game time in the near future.

“I think hopefully the more runs of games I get will obviously be good for myself and keep getting fitter and fitter and score more goals”.

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It was the perfect response from Pools following Saturday’s disappointing league defeat at the hands of Woking, with Hawkes feeling the side responded in exactly the right way.

He added: “Obviously it was the first win under the new manager and it’s how you react to that getting beat and we obviously said before the game you’re going to lose games and it’s just how you react to that and can you make the next one a win or at least a draw so obviously that was massive to get the win and show the gaffer we can mix with the better teams.”