Hartlepool United boss Lee Clark's message after defeat- 'Do you want me to lie on the floor and start crying?'
Lee Clark issues strong message after midweek Altrincham defeat in National League.
Lee Clark has come out fighting after overseeing another defeat at Hartlepool United.
On Wednesday night, former Hartlepool United midfielder Tom Crawford came back to haunt Pools and heap more pressure on boss Clark with Pools beaten 2-1 away at Altrincham in the National League.
Crawford netted the decisive goal nine minutes from time against ten-man Pools following Jack Hunter’s red card after two yellow card offences. Defeat leaves Pools 16th, with five defeats in the opening eight league games - a campaign in which Pools had been targeting promotion. Pools are back in action on Saturday lunchtime when Worthing are the visitors to The Vic.
On his reaction to the poor form, Clark - speaking at Altrincham in the aftermath of the defeat - told BBC Tees Sport: “What do you want me to do? Do you want me to lie on the floor and start crying? That’s good because I won’t be doing that, that’s for sure. I’ll be coming out with my chest pumped out and I’ll be ready to go on Saturday at 12.30.”
Clark tweaked the system away from his usual 4-4-2 for the trip to Altrincham and he felt it was working well until another red card hampered Pools.
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Clark added: “I thought some of the football we have played tonight, especially in the first-half, was as good as we have played. You have to look beyond results, I know people find that difficult when you lose, they just want to see the negatives etc.
“The new formation was working, we got our good players on the ball in good areas. As I said, with a bit more ruthlessness, we could have been ahead. I was really disappointed with Kidderminster in terms of our possession and work with the ball. I thought we turned the ball over so quickly, gave the ball back to Kidderminster so badly.
“It was difficult because if you’re not doing well with the ball, you’re putting yourself under pressure. We wanted to have more of the ball tonight, that’s why we went with that formation and the lads in the middle enjoyed a lot of possession, did some great things with it and created some good situations.
“Then it has to all change because you go down to ten men and you can’t stick with that formation because you will just get opened up from a team that like to pass anyway. It puts everything on the back-burner, you have to try and do something a bit different and then you have lads having to do extra work and they fatigue a bit quicker. It has a massive knock-on effect and I’m totally convinced the red card has changed the course of the result for us.”
Your next Hartlepool United read: Lee Clark responds to another red card for his underperforming Hartlepool United side