John Askey's clear message for Hartlepool United ahead of FA Cup tie with Chester

Hartlepool made a return to winning ways in the National League with an important win over Eastleigh to arrest an alarming dip in form which brought three straight defeats.

Emmanuel Dieseruvwe’s two goals helped move Askey's side back into the play-off places as Hartlepool take a break from league action this weekend to focus on the FA Cup.

Pools host National League North side Chester with a spot in the FA Cup first round up for grabs.

Chester sit 14th in the National League North table – their most recent visit to the North East coming in a 1-1 draw with Spennymoor Town last month.

Askey’s side, who reached the third round of the competition last season before losing out to Championship Stoke City, will start as firm favourites on home soil and the Hartlepool boss has warned his side will not be overlooking Chester or the FA Cup for that matter.

“We won’t take Chester lightly at all,” he said.

"It’s a big game. The FA Cup brings in a lot of money so it’s important we prepare properly. It’s no use winning games [like against Eastleigh] and then letting ourselves down.

"We’ve got to push on. We’ve got to now replicate our performance. We’ve had a couple of games where we’ve played really well. We were disappointed with the result against Boreham Wood but there were signs there that if we could do it again there was more chance that we were going to win, so it’s just what we needed and it gives us a free week before the FA Cup game.”

Despite Askey's clear intentions to continue Hartlepool’s form, there will be a temptation to rotate his squad given the club’s recent heavy schedule and injury concerns – albeit they came through their win over Eastleigh unscathed.

“The good thing is nobody got injured so we’ve got a free week to rest up and prepare for Chester. It will be a tough game, FA Cup games always are, but if we hadn’t have won it would have been a long week and a worrying week.”