Hartlepool United attacker Matty Daly confident Pools can bounce back following defeat to play-off rivals
Hartlepool United attacker Matty Daly insists his side still have what it takes to challenge for a National League play-off place this season.
Pools lost ground in the race for the play-offs after being beaten 2-1 at home to Scunthorpe, one of their direct rivals for a coveted spot in the top seven, on Boxing Day.
Nicky Featherstone's side came into the game knowing that three points had the potential to lift them into the stop seven for the first time since September but ended the afternoon slipping down to ninth, with the gap between themselves and seventh-placed Southend widening to four points after the Shrimpers beat rivals Braintree 1-0 despite having Ben Goodliffe sent off after 45 minutes.
In all likelihood, Pools can now only realistically hope to reel in Southend, last season's beaten play-off finalists, after Scunthorpe, who are sixth, opened up a 12-point gap between themselves and Featherstone's side having played a game fewer.
Following a seven-match unbeaten run while Featherstone was in interim charge that saw them re-energise their play-off push, Pools are now winless in four games since he was appointed until the end of the season.
Despite making a decent start to Friday's game, Pools were second best for large parts of the contest and found themselves two goals down after Callum Roberts punished mistakes by Cameron John and skipper Tom Parkes to score his seventh and eighth goals of another productive campaign.
In a bid to get back into the contest, Featherstone made several attacking changes, introducing Luke Charman, Daly and, later, the out of sorts Danny Johnson from the bench.
Charman and Daly combined 12 minutes from time to give Pools some late hope, with Daly ending a run of seven matches without a goal thanks to a curling effort that sailed beyond Leeds loanee Rory Mahady and into the far corner.
In the end, Daly's goal proved too little, too late for Pools but it was at least a welcome boost for the 24-year-old, who has endured a mixed campaign so far since sealing a permanent return to Victoria Park over the summer.
The attacking-midfielder impressed while on loan at Pools during the 2021/22 campaign, scoring seven goals in 27 games.
Indeed, Daly was an instrumental figure in his side's memorable run to the semi-finals of the Football League Trophy, scoring five goals in four matches.
Following a generally successful spell in the Football League with Harrogate, there were high hopes for Daly after he agreed to return to Pools, this time on a permanent basis, in August.
Despite some flashes of promise, however, Daly has scored just twice in 24 National League games so far this term and the attacker lost his place in the starting XI ahead of the visit of Scunthorpe.
Having come off the bench to score, then, supporters will be hoping Daly can kick on as Pools look to end their run of four matches without a win when they travel to league leaders Rochdale on Tuesday.
"Personally, it's nice to score - especially at home in front of the fans," Daly told The Red Radio.
"Ultimately, we lost the game and at the end of the day, if we'd won then it would have been a real statement of intent about what we're trying to do here, and that's get into the play-offs.
"There's been a few games where we probably should have come out on top and put ourselves into those play-off places. The only thing we can do is go again, there's still plenty of football to be played yet.
"We'll go to Rochdale now and try to put our stamp on things. We're going there to win, we're not going there just to be there.
"As a team, as a squad, we're ready to bounce back after the past few games, where we've missed an opportunity. We're going there for a result."