Dave Challinor telling Hartlepool United players 'a few home truths' following 2-1 defeat at Woking

After tasting defeat for the first time as Pools boss at Woking, Challinor wants to address things quickly and effectively ahead of back to back cup matches against Exeter City and Harrogate Town.

The United boss felt there were positives to take from Saturday’s match but that didn’t stop him going in hard on his players.

“I pointed the finger in the dressing room, but I’ll keep that private,” he said.

“All I’ll say is that I think there are people in there who can do a bit more in order to ensure we come away with three points.

“We’ve got to keep calm minds, compete and manage the game in a positive way that keeps you on the front foot.

“I’m not going to lie to players and not tell them the truth because they’ll end up looking back to me in a months time or three years time saying ‘you never told me that’.

“My job is to help the players and at times that means telling them a few home truths and what they need to do better as well as encouraging them and letting them know the things they do well.

“I want the players to achieve their goals and play at the highest level they can play, if we can get that right the club will be successful and that’s the most important thing.

“Woking was another big opportunity and you can’t let opportunities continue to pass you by.

“It’s dead easy to go at the end of the season ‘well we could have won that game and we should have got a point there,’ it makes no difference.

“There were lots of positives Saturday and we’d done enough to win the game in 60-minutes but it’s a 90-minute game and result that we’ll be judged on.

“We just didn’t have enough to go and get that second goal and see the game through – it was annoying and really disappointing.”