'Fighting' talk from John Askey as Hartlepool United make Suit Direct Stadium return against Woking

Pools welcome a Woking side who finished in the National League play-offs last season as they look to get back to winning ways following an afternoon to forget in Oxford.

Askey's side were heavily beaten at Marsh Lane and will be hoping they can bounce back similar to what they have done twice already this season when losing at Barnet and Chesterfield.

On each occasion Pools won their following fixture against Gateshead and Wealdstone respectively and Askey believes any team heading to the Suit Direct Stadium will know they are in for a tough afternoon.

“You’ve got to hope [we can use that defeat],” Askey told BBC Radio Tees.

"Our home form has been fantastic and you’ve got to take confidence from that.

"We always said after 10 games you get a good idea of whereabouts you are because you’ve played quite a few teams, but whenever anybody suffers a defeat and gets hurt you have to react in the right way and come out fighting and the players have done that in the past, so hopefully that will be the case again.”

He added: “Results like that [against Oxford] I think are more of a shock than anything.

"For 60 minutes we completely controlled the game, and is probably as well as we’ve played football-wise, then to concede three goals so quickly it just hit us all. We didn’t have time to react to it, so for a game we had complete control of to end like that is very disappointing.

"But it’s gone and we have to look forward. Hopefully we can get back to the performances we’ve shown at home.

"Whenever we’re at home you always fancy us. Teams now know coming to Hartlepool is not easy.

"But Woking have got some good players and a lot of league experience and they’ll be strong again this year.”

One of those players could be former Pools defender Timi Odusina who agreed a loan deal with the Cardinals from Bradford City.

Pools, meanwhile, should have both Emmanuel Onariase and Kieran Wallace available while new signing Osazee Aghatise could make his debut after agreeing a short-term deal.