John Askey reveals Hartlepool United's relegation run-in hopes ahead of Swindon Town test with Crawley Town fixture looming

Crawley make the trip to the Suit Direct Stadium on April 22 in what could be a pivotal fixture when it comes to determining which division Hartlepool will be playing their football in next season.

Hartlepool are currently five points behind Crawley with just eight games of the season remaining - five of which are to come before they visit the North East.

Scott Lindsey’s side held four games in hand over Pools upon Askey’s arrival at the club in February but were only able to take two points from a possible 12 available, which means Hartlepool still have an opportunity to claw back the deficit over the final month of the season.

It means Hartlepool now know what they have got to do in the remaining eight games with Askey keen to try and head into that meeting with Crawley within touching distance, which will mean picking up points in their five games prior - starting with Saturday's visit of Swindon Town.

“We all know what we’ve got to do now,” Askey told The Mail.

“Hopefully now when we play them, if we can get three more points than they get [between now and then], when we do play them it becomes a massive game.

“But we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves and if we keep putting performances in like we’ve done in the last five then we’ve got a good chance of still being in and around it when we play Crawley.”

Having played a number of teams towards the top of League Two of late, Hartlepool see a slight ease up of fixtures in the coming weeks.

But Askey maintains it is about his players being able to continue with the levels of performance they have been showing since his arrival as manager rather than the supposed difficulty of Hartlepool’s remaining fixtures.

“It does [ease up] slightly, but as we’ve shown ourselves there’s not a great deal between the top and the bottom,” said Askey.

“Whoever we play, then the thing you have to be most concerned about is yourself and don’t worry about the opposition.

“The main thing is how we perform, whether you play somebody at the top or at the bottom. Because if we don’t perform then any team in this league is capable of beating us.”

He added: “I’m as confident as I can be [we will win enough games] with what I’ve seen.

“It’s just whether we can keep the performances up that we've shown over the last few weeks. If we can do that then I’m very confident.

“If the form dips then you know what to expect. But you’ve seen in the last few weeks they’ve been playing well and if you’d been in to watch any of the games you wouldn't know who’s at the top and who’s at the bottom.”