Hartlepool United 'holding no fear' going into final nine matches of the National League season as Dave Challinor looks to continue play-off challenge

Pools sit level on points with the top seven following their 1-0 win at Solihull Moors on Tuesday evening.

Since Christmas, Pools have taken points off seven of the top 10 teams in the division in Barrow, Dover Athletic, Yeovil Town, Stockport County, Notts County and Boreham Wood prior to their win at Damson Park.

And Challinor’s side are full of confidence going into the final run of games.

“Of course [we’re confident], we’re holding no fear at the moment,” he said.

“We’re playing with a belief and confidence which we should be.

“We can’t control results, that’s one variable that can be up and down, [at Solihull] we relied on a little bit of quality at one end and a bit of luck at the other with the ball hitting our post and the lad putting it wide.

“For us, it’s about those fine margins and what we don’t want to do is look back. We’ve given ourselves a shot and there is plenty of belief in what we’re doing.

“We’ll control the variables we can and hopefully we’ll get a bit of luck that will take us to some really exciting games until the end of the season.”

Pools have taken seven points out of a possible nine against three play-off rivals in their last three matches going into Saturday’s match at home to relegation-threatened Ebbsfleet United.

“In terms of a statement to everyone else, I don’t think it makes too much difference because there are several teams in good runs of form and we’re one of them,” added the Hartlepool manager.

“For us, it’s a statement to ourselves to show we’re doing something right and we’ve got to keep believing in that and getting results.

“It’s a simple formula that comes down to the fact that they’ve worked their socks off and we’ll have to look after them now and make sure they can produce again on Saturday.”