Andrew Davies vows Hartlepool United will keep their head, when all about are losing theirs

While those outside the club panic, Andrew Davies says it's important the Hartlepool United dressing room remains calm.
Andrew Davies.Andrew Davies.
Andrew Davies.

The weekend defeat to Sutton United has seen Pools slip to four points outside the play-off spots and eight off automatic promotion.

Since then manager Matthew Bates and his players have come in for a fair bit of criticism from Poolies, even though it was only their third loss of the National League season.

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Davies accepts it’s fine for punters to have their ups and downs on the terraces, but it’s the job of the players to roll with the punches this season.

“It comes with experience,” Davies said of dealing with pressures of defeat this campaign.

“We have got some young lads in the group. I have been through seasons where you lose five or six on the bounce then go and win seven. That’s just football and the way it goes sometimes.

“You get that experience with playing a lot of games.

“The lads realise the weekend was a blip. We have lost three in 17 games this season. If we’d have been offered that we would have taken it.

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“We all make mistakes, the next game is the time to put it to bed.

“Tuesday we go again and aim to get the result. There will be no heads down - we can’t let that kind of thing happen because it then becomes a problem moving forward.”

Home form is a concern of many supporters, who have been starved of any eye-catching performances at the Super 6 Stadium.

Pools have lost just twice on home turf, but it is on their travels where performances of note have materialised this season.
Discussing the home and away form, Davies said: “The result hurt,” said Davies.

“It’s a long season. We move on.

“We do not fear playing at home.

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“Our expectations have been raised and maybe that’s an issue - but we have a good group of lads who should be able to deal with that.

“I can’t put my finger on why it is different.

“We don’t do different things at home or away in terms of preparation - it’s all the same.

“Fans come to the ground to see us win games and we didn’t produce that.”

Pools have already played two of the top three teams in the National League away from home and this evening will make it a hat-trick.

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While they were on the wrong end of a midweek defeat to Salford City, more recently they did manage a 0-0 draw at table-toppers Leyton Orient.

Davies knows Pools will have to be at their very best to get something at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground this evening.

“I don’t know all that much about them but you have to look at the league to know they will be a good team,” said the former Middlesbrough central defender.

“We have been to Leyton Orient, who are a good team, and I know we didn’t play as well as we should be we got a result.

“If we go and get a result at Wrexham, that’s football. A result puts the weekend defeat to bed.”