Graeme Lee's honest admission as Hartlepool United's record of conceding the opening goal continued against Salford City

Pools fell to defeat against Salford City with the Ammies scoring twice unanswered in the first half with Lee’s side lacklustre throughout.

But Corrie Ndaba’s opening goal midway through the first half was the ninth time in the last 10 league games in which Pools have conceded the opening goal, with the remaining game being a goalless draw with an out-of-form Leyton Orient.

It means Lee’s side, more often than not, are having to come from behind in order to claim any points, something which they can only continue to do so many times.

Of those 10 games, Pools have managed to return points in five with come-from-behind victories over Colchester United, Harrogate Town and Newport County and draws with Sutton United and Mansfield Town.

But Gary Bowyer’s Salford never looked like giving up their advantage as the Ammies went on to double their lead soon after through Jason Lowe’s stunning strike.

And Lee admits having to chase games is becoming tiresome while suggesting there are certain goals his side are conceding which are unacceptable.

“It’s infuriating,” Lee told The Mail.

“You get on the training field and you try and cut out set plays and do this or do that.

“I’ll accept someone hitting one from 35 yards but the first goal we spoke about last week, allowing someone to cut inside and link up and it’s the same thing again.

“They’re the little bits we keep talking about, the desire and the fight. We don’t get close enough to people and then we allow them inside. It’s things you don’t want to accept.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re battling relegation, battling for promotion or in our position, you don’t accept it, so there’s errors happening. And they’re the areas we need to improve on.

“It’s your mentality. If your mindset is not where it needs to be [you’ll struggle].

“They were more hungry. But you look at some of the other teams we’ve just played, all these teams who are in and amongst it are fighting for it and we look like a team who are not quite fighting for anything and that’s disappointing.”

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