Hartlepool United head coach takes responsibility for Rochdale defeat after Pools mauled in Manchester

Despite the best efforts of the 730 travelling fans, who descended on Spotland in fancy dress and sang their hearts out until the bitter end, Pools endured a nightmarish afternoon in Greater Manchester against a ruthless Dale side who secured their place in this year's National League play-offs.

Having been so impressive in Easter Monday's statement win over out of sorts rivals Gateshead, Pools fans making the trip to the North West might have been hoping their side could continue their strong end to the season following a challenging week off the pitch, with the ongoing takeover negotiations seemingly taking yet another setback. If Pools were relieved to be able to put a difficult few days behind them when the referee's first whistle blew on Saturday, then that feeling didn't last long; former Pools frontman Devante Rodney, who has a habit of scoring against his old side, put the hosts in front after just five minutes and it wasn't long before Dale were running riot as Pools began to capitulate.

Consistency has been an issue for Pools throughout another underwhelming campaign. Although they managed to string three successive wins together during a run of six matches unbeaten, they've only been able to record back-to-back wins once other than that. While there has been a sense throughout this season that Pools aren't too far away from being a really competitive team, there have been too many false dawns and a number of frustrating, faltering winless runs.

A failure to quite get over the line against the likes of Maidenhead, Braintree, Wealdstone and Woking is one thing, but the manner of Saturday's performance and result represents a real cause for concern. There was a sense that Pools, on the pitch at least, might have headed into the off-season with a renewed optimism following a strong end to the campaign under Anthony Limbrick. To some extent, that still remains true; Pools have been much-improved in recent weeks under the Australian. However, the mauling in Manchester is likely to leave a bitter taste when the players jet off on their summer holidays, with the final game of the season against Forest Green Rovers their one and only chance to banish the bad memories of Saturday's humbling defeat, their heaviest of the season. To an extent, it might be possible to write the game off as a bad day at the office against a side who had far more to play for than Pools. Even so, the fact that Limbrick's side produced such a poor performance despite such a spirited effort from the travelling fans has raised understandable questions and concerns.

A lack of cutting edge and quality has probably cost Pools more than an absence of heart and spirit this term. Fans, who have once again travelled the length and breadth of the country to support a generally underperforming side through thick and thin, seem to possess almost unending reserves of patience and stayed to clap the players off at full time despite a pretty dismal display from start to finish. If Pools are to become a successful side in the future - and a lot will depend on what happens with the ongoing takeover negotiations and whether Limbrick can keep the core of his squad together - then they simply have to become more consistent. Yet Limbrick, who took responsibility for the humbling defeat, was in no mood to panic after Saturday's game and is confident his side have what it takes to bounce back.

"We've been talking a lot about consistency," he said.

"You could look at the form table and we were third after eight games, so you could say we do have consistency.

"We knew Rochdale were a very good side, we were warned of it in the week, we'd watched them closely and we'd seen the game back when they played us earlier in the season. They can hurt you in certain areas of the pitch and we didn't perform in those areas as well as we needed to - and as well as we did on Monday. It was a big contrast and I take responsibility for that, there's no issue there. I wouldn't say it's necessarily a concern - it would be if it was happening every week. We're disappointed with the result, there's no doubt about that, and we're not happy with the way we played.

"We need to see a reaction. In the last three home games we've scored 10 goals and we've had some really good performances, none more than the one on Monday and we need to get back to that level. We'll be pushing each other to get back on track because we feel like we owe the fans."

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