Hartlepool United assistant vows to keep fighting but admits play-offs 'not in our hands'
Hartlepool United assistant manager Gary Liddle admits finishing in the National League play-off places is "not in our hands".
Pools' slim hopes of sneaking into the top seven were dealt a huge blow following back-to-back home defeats last week.
Having propelled themselves to within striking distance of the play-off places after cruising past big-spending rivals Carlisle United, Pools were beaten by relegation-threatened Sutton United last Tuesday before being edged out by Halifax Town, one of their direct rivals for the coveted seventh spot, on Saturday.
With Southend not kicking off until Saturday evening, Nicky Featherstone's side knew that three points at the weekend would have lifted them into the top seven for the first time since September. Instead, a late goal from in-form Will Harris, who spent time on trial at Victoria Park in 2022 and has now found the net 18 times in his last 20 matches, left Pools with a mountain to climb if they're to gatecrash the play-offs.
Pools, who have been plagued by inconsistency all season, are now five points adrift of Halifax while Southend, who came from two goals down to salvage a valuable point against Carlisle on Saturday, look to be in the driving seat in the race for seventh spot; Kevin Maher's side are three points clear of Pools with three games in hand.
For Pools to have any chance, then they will simply have to string a run of wins together ahead of this weekend's mammoth trip to bottom club Truro City, a journey of 436 miles.
Liddle, who was speaking to the press after Featherstone was sent off following the full-time whistle at the weekend, admitted that his side's play-off hopes are out of their hands with 10 games remaining this season.
"It's certainly not in our hands," he told BBC Radio Tees Sport.
"It wasn't before the game, was it? We've always had an outside chance of getting in the play-offs, we've played a team today (Saturday) who were above us in the table, albeit we have a game in hand.
"Halifax are in that last play-off place and Southend have got a couple of games in hand on us and they're a couple of points above us, so it was always going to be a tall order. It's not something we'll give up on, the league is a little bit crazy in terms of results.
"We'll keep plodding on and we'll do our best, that's all we can do. It's really disappointing to have lost our last two and not to have managed to pick up the points and results that we aimed to get in order to get us closer to those play-off places.
"We'll carry on, we've got a handful of games still to go but it's going to be really tough and it's going to take a good run to get in there. Unfortunately, we haven't seen too much of that this season in terms of getting runs of wins together and getting points on the board in a consecutive manner.
"It's a tall order, but we'll crack on and hope to win as many games as we can."