Hartlepool United must channel inner 'Tyson Fury' after Keith Curle's side knocked out of Papa Johns by Everton U21s

Pools were humiliated by the Premier League side’s academy outfit at the Suit Direct Stadium as they were eliminated from the competition at the group stage. Curle’s side were 4-0 down at half-time but were unable to make any inroads into the scoreline after the break as an impressive Toffees side compounded the misery on Hartlepool in the second half.

But when asked how damaging a defeat like this could be, Curle suggested to The Mail that sometimes you need to take a heavy blow in order to pick yourself up.

“Sometimes you need to take a right-hander. You need to get smacked on the end of the nose and you need to go down. This is one of those,” said Curle.

“It’s like Tyson Fury when he took that right-hander off Deontay Wilder. It’s one of those and you could see when the camera panned in on him he thought ‘I'm getting up.’ He took his time, but he got up. And it’s one of those. We’ve taken a right-hander.”

But does Curle have the squad to be able to pull themselves up off the canvas? The interim boss gave a telling answer.

“I believe I can get this football club off the canvas, yeah.”

Curle has spoken on a number of occasions about knowing what it takes to steer a side away from danger in League Two but, in the wake of the humbling defeat to Everton under-21s, admits a number of players may need to move on if Pools are to achieve their goal of survival this season.

“I’ve been in this situation before as a manager and I know what’s needed to get out of it,” explained Curle.

"To get out of it I've got to take people on a journey. And it's not the journey that people decide that they want to go on. I take people with me. I take the people to go on a journey and to keep this football club in the division.

“Players who I don't want to keep with me get invited to go on a different journey. If for contractual reasons they're unable to get themselves fixed up, they still don’t play a part in the journey that this football club needs to go on. And that’s not personal, that’s professional because I know what's needed to get out of this situation.”

Pools return to league action at Swindon Town this weekend, and look set to continue to be without Joe Grey and Rollin Menayese, as Curle endeavours to find a way for his side to become more resilient.

“I don’t like losing any games, no matter what the competition is. The manner of the defeat shows another example of where we’re at,” said Curle.

“We don’t shy away from some of the deficiencies we’ve got, not only as a team but as a squad and as a football club. We don’t shy away from them, we identify them and we work to improve them.”