John Askey makes Truro City 'pride' demand ahead of Hartlepool United reunion
Hartlepool United will face a Truro City side managed by former Pools boss John Askey on Saturday afternoon.
Former Hartlepool United manager John Askey will hope to inflict another blow on his old club’s National League play-off hopes when they make the long trip to Truro City on Saturday afternoon.
Askey was named as successor to Keith Curle in February 2023 but was unable to prevent Pools from slipping into the National League as they slipped out of the EFL despite claiming a 3-1 home win against Barrow on the penultimate weekend of a long and challenging season. An impressive start to life back in non-league’s top tier brought three wins in four games and Askey was rewarded with a new deal that committed him to the club for another two seasons. However, a run of just three wins in 19 games saw Pools plummet to seventeenth place in the table and his reign was brought to an end on the final weekend of 2023 after his side had suffered a defeat against Oldham Athletic.
After spending six months out of management, Askey returned to the dugout with Truro during the summer of 2024 and he led his new side to the National League South title during his first season in charge and that earned the Tinners a first ever season in the National League. However, the current campaign has been one of struggle for Askey and his players as they have claimed just six wins in 36 league games and Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Altrincham has left them sitting 8 points from safety with just ten games remaining in the season.
Despite their poor run of form and the perilous position in the league, Askey refused to criticise his players and urged his squad to ‘keep showing pride’ in their performances between now and the end of the season.
Frustrating
Speaking after the weekend defeat, the former Pools boss told BBC Radio Cornwall: "You couldn't knock the players for their effort, I thought the effort was there. But all we can do is just keep going, no matter what the situation, is even if we get to a stage where we can't stay up, then we've still got to keep showing pride. The lads themselves have got to show that they're capable of playing at this level as an individual and then hopefully we can pick up a few points now before the end of the season.
"The first one 15 or 20 minutes, the amount of chances we had, I think we had the post twice and if you don't take your chances then it can come back to bite you and it did today. It's frustrating because how we started the game you couldn't ask for us to play better, but I always felt as though when we did lose the ball we were a little bit too open. Having said that I don't think that's where the goals came from, but it just probably sums the season up really the game today."
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