John Askey's 'nagging' Hartlepool United regret after relegation to the National League

Askey had steered his side to an eight game unbeaten run ahead of the long trip to South Wales to face a Newport side who had all but secured their League Two status.

Buoyed by a late win over Swindon Town and a solid return of four points from six over the Easter weekend, Hartlepool headed to Rodney Parade outside the relegation zone with their destiny in their own hands.

But, owing to a number of injuries, Askey made the decision to change his approach against Newport as he started with a back four where Pools would succumb to a lacklustre 2-0 defeat – the first of Askey’s tenure.

But that defeat would cause something of a hangover as Pools followed it up with successive 2-0 defeats against Salford City and Crawley Town to, effectively, condemn themselves back to the National League.

Askey told The Mail: "The nagging thing for me is; could I have done more when we went to Newport?

"Jamie [Sterry] not being available and then Muz [Euan Murray] getting injured was a bit of a turning point and you look at yourself. Could we have approached the game any different? Was I getting a little bit carried away with the results and let things slip a little bit?

"Those are the sorts of things why you don’t sleep at night. But at the end of the day it comes down to players themselves having that resolute determination that you need when you’re in these positions.

“In situations like that some people rise to the occasion and, for whatever reason, we weren’t able to.”

Askey has also looked back on his tenure since being appointed in February and highlighted other moments which may have proved crucial to Hartlepool as they were unable to avoid the drop.

After fighting back to claim a 3-3 draw with Walsall in his first game in charge, Askey’s side were unfortunate not to take all three points at Tranmere Rovers a week later when on the wrong end of a penalty decision.

“One of the biggest frustrations was probably the Tranmere game,” he said.

"Obviously with the penalty decision and then Kempy’s header right at the end. I think if we’d have won that it could have started something but it’s ifs and buts.”

Askey also believes the opportunities missed in the closing stages against Stevenage, with Euan Murray and Oliver Finney wasting good chances to claim all three points, might have been key but the Hartlepool boss concedes it has been their defensive record which, ultimately, would seal their fate.

"It’s always hard if you haven’t got a transfer window and you can’t bring in the players that you want. That’s always a big period and the January window is massive,” said Askey.

"When you can’t change what’s gone on before that’s difficult. But I still felt when I came in the performances showed what they can do.

"It was always that nagging feeling every game we went into we couldn’t keep a clean sheet and if you can’t keep clean sheets then it makes it really difficult to get the result you want.”