Hartlepool United assistant manager Joe Parkinson reflects on 'massive' 1-0 win over Dagenham & Redbridge

Mark Kitching’s late strike secured a narrow win for Pools following a fairly dominant display at Victoria Park.

“Coming into a very busy Christmas period, it’s important for us to pick up three points at home and set us on our way and set the standard,” Parkinson admitted.

“They sat in and made it difficult for us which I’ll give them some credit for but we just kept going and in the end we found a winner with a surprise scorer really!

“We knew that we were the ones trying to win the game.

“They stayed quite compact with banks of four and some good blocking and heading to make it difficult for us. But the manager spoke to the players saying that we needed to be patient but not in a slow way, we needed to play with a high tempo and hopefully the chance would come.

“It was getting late on and we were biting our nails but the lads kept going to get the positive result which is perfect.

“Maybe the supporters would think an out of form Dagenham team coming up here just before Christmas, we should be easily beating them.

“I was definitely thinking we were going to draw the game at one point.

“As staff we were talking about how we could change it and what we could do and whether they could end up nicking it which is always the worry in my mind.

“But the way the lads just kept knocking on the door and stuck to the gameplan was great and great to get it over the line.

“It would have been very disappointing to draw but the manager said afterwards, that’s what we want teams coming here and doing because it shows that they fear us by setting up like that.

“We need to get used to teams wanting to sit in and realise what strengths we’ve got it shows we’re doing some good things.”