Craig Hignett's one word message to his Hartlepool United players ahead of the trip to Halifax Town

Craig Hignett is hoping to right the wrongs from Saturday’s performance when Hartlepool United visit Halifax Town on Tuesday night – and the message to his players is simple.
Hartlepool United manager Craig Hignett   during the Vanarama National League match between Hartlepool United and Sutton United  at Victoria Park, Hartlepool on Saturday 3rd August 2019. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)Hartlepool United manager Craig Hignett   during the Vanarama National League match between Hartlepool United and Sutton United  at Victoria Park, Hartlepool on Saturday 3rd August 2019. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)
Hartlepool United manager Craig Hignett during the Vanarama National League match between Hartlepool United and Sutton United at Victoria Park, Hartlepool on Saturday 3rd August 2019. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)

A 3-1 defeat to Sutton United at Victoria Park accurately summed up what was an uninspiring and lacklustre display from Hignett’s side to open the 2019-20 campaign.

But the quick turnaround of matches means Pools have the chance to make amends and get off the mark at The Shay.

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And Hignett's message to his players is simple. “Win,” he said. “That’s it, win – good teams don’t lose two in a row.”

“Get Sutton out the way and go and win then we’ve got a start where we’ve won one and lost one which you’ll probably take but I think the way we lost on Saturday was the most disappointing thing for me.

“The first goal set the tone but I think we set the tone by how slow we were passing the ball, it was a bit lethargic and the whole performance in the first half was lethargic and I think that showed with the goals.

“We can’t give ourselves a mountain to climb every week. We did it last year and we kept coming back, I don’t want that this year, I want us scoring first.”

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Hignett is also expecting to come up against a Halifax side buoyed by an impressive 4-1 win at Ebbsfleet United.

“Ebbsfleet had a man sent off early on but Halifax’s tails will obviously be up and it’ll be a tough game and any away game in the National League is tough,” he added.

“I’m not going to get too down about it, we showed enough in the second half against Sutton to know we’re going to be a threat for people.

“We just need to get more people firing than aren’t.

“I think the lads will look forward to Tuesday coming so fast after getting the disappointment of Sutton out of the way so they can go and do something about it.

“If nothing else, they should be really determined to put right what went wrong on Saturday.”