Hartlepool United boss says there is always room for improvement ahead of Yeovil Town clash

Pools suffered a setback on the road in midweek, beaten 2-1 away at Eastleigh, but they have an opportunity to get quickly back on track at Victoria Park this afternoon (KO 3pm).

Pools sit fifth in the National League and their promotion hopes were given a major boost on Thursday evening when it was confirmed that the National League season would carry on.

There had been doubts over whether Pools’ efforts this season may have all been for nothing but Challinor’s side can now fully focus on trying to win promotion back to the EFL.

And Challinor believes there is more to come from his side, he told the Mail: “We’re getting what we need from the team at the moment but from an individual perspective everyone can improve.

"We’re still a young team and still a few players who aren’t fully match fit yet.

"A lot of the players who we brought in over the summer are ones with a point to prove after being released or where things haven’t worked out for them elsewhere, we’ve given them a platform to go and perform and they’re doing that and there’s still plenty of scope to improve.

"The pleasing thing for us as a management team is that we’re putting little plans in place and what we want to do but the players have to go out there and football is very variable and we can set up a game plan but lots of things can change and the players have to be able to deal with it.

"We can impact things slightly from the side and it’s a bit easier to get those messages across without supporters but they’ve got to adapt that to try and win a game of football which is what they’re doing well at the moment.”

Clubs had been voting over recent weeks with the results announced Thursday evening.

The National League North and South will, however, stop and their seasons be declared null and void.

There won’t be any promotion or relegation to those divisions but there will be promotion from the National League into the EFL, with one automatic place and the play-off winners up for grabs.

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