Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor dissects 'defensive horror show' at Woking

Pools dropped to 11th in the National League table after being well beaten at the Laithwaite Community Stadium over the weekend.

And after keeping a clean sheet in their previous match at home to King’s Lynn Town, Challinor was alarmed by the lack of defensive consistency from his side as they found themselves 2-0 down with little over quarter of an hour played.

Another defensive mix-up in the second half allowed Woking to put the game to bed with their third goal of the afternoon.

"It wasn’t just the goals conceded, defensively it was a horror show,” Challinor admitted.

“Straight away I can say for the first goal we’ve conceded from a cross in our box within the first couple of minutes which needed to be cleared.

"It’s poor defensively and you can point the fingers at the two centre-backs and our full-back. Then the corner there are a lot of bodies in there but we fail to deal with it again.

"The third goal sums us up, we’ve said about playing forward and out from the back and we have the opportunity to do that but Johnno [Ryan Johnson] plays it back to Ben [Killip] who again has a moment where he thinks he’s a centre-back and plays a ball straight into their midfield.

"The goals are a result of poor play all over, you can say it’s bad defending but that happens throughout where we’re not being aggressive and dominant and not winning second balls. It was nowhere near good enough.”

A message from the Football Clubs Editor

Our aim is to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative Hartlepool United coverage 365 days a year.

This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to, please consider taking out a subscription to our new sports-only package here.

Your support is much appreciated. Richard Mennear, Football Clubs Editor