Hartlepool United boss insists Pools are full of belief ahead of long trip to Woking
Hartlepool United manager Nicky Featherstone has said that his side will be full of confidence when they make the long trip to Woking on Saturday.
Following a remarkable week that saw American investor and businessman Landon Smith complete an unexpected takeover of the club from controversial former owner Raj Singh on New Year's Eve, Pools turn their attention, for 90 minutes at least, to this weekend's long journey to Surrey.
After a challenging run of four games without a win, Pools pulled off surely their best result of the campaign by beating National League leaders Rochdale in impressive fashion on Tuesday but Featherstone has warned his side will have to be at their best if they're to get past a Woking team who are one of their direct rivals for a coveted National League play-off place.
"I've said it before, because we had a spell during the season where we didn't win many games for a long period of time, any setback at the minute is massive and it's catastrophic to our play-off hopes," Featherstone told BBC Radio Tees Sport.
"There are going to be setbacks, we've got to limit them. Again, Woking is another opportunity, we've got to take belief and real momentum from the game on Tuesday.
"It will be a tough game, they've not won in their last three so they'll be desperate to get back to winning ways. They're a team that goes on runs, they either win a load or they don't win for a while.
"Woking are capable of beating any team at this level, we've seen that throughout this season so far. It'll be a tricky game but if the lads don't believe after Tuesday, then we never will."
Having passed an initial pitch inspection on Friday, Woking have warned that a further inspection is set to take place at 10:30am on Saturday morning. With temperatures forecast to fall below freezing in Surrey, Woking have been taking precautionary measures, including frost covers, in a bid to ensure the game goes ahead.