Keith Curle issues 'fight mode' warning to Hartlepool United rivals

Curle takes his side to the Envirovent Stadium this lunchtime looking to bounce back from their second half collapse against Carlisle United a week ago, with the Blues inflicting a first defeat for Curle since taking over as interim boss.

Curle has taken five points from his first four games in charge - but while not necessarily a significant total, it is an accumulation of points which has seen Hartlepool move out of the relegation zone, as well as claim their first league win of the season over Doncaster Rovers.

But although defeat to Carlisle was a setback, Pools have not found themselves cut adrift despite a poor start to the season, with Curle issuing a warning to their rivals by insisting ‘we’re in fight mode.’

Curle told The Mail: “A dangerous place to be is when football clubs don’t understand where they’re at and they rely on where they’re at in the division.

“We’ve got a clear understanding from when I first came in. The conversations I had with the chairman and the stakeholders of the football club were about identifying where we were at as a football club and not shying away from it, not trying to ignore it and not throwing money at things.

“There are other football clubs who might be two, three, four, five, six points above us that haven’t realised they’re in a dogfight, because if we win two games we’re in and around competing with them.

“Six points in this division can happen in a week. Teams above us are going to be in trouble because we’re chasing them and we’re in fight mode.”

Pools can, temporarily, climb to 18th in the table with a win and arrive in North Yorkshire with form on their side against Harrogate having won each of the last three meetings with the Sulphurites, including a 2-0 success in the Papa Johns Trophy in August.

But Curle admits he does not concern himself with previous results.

“It was before I was here. What’s happened before I was here has gone. Our focus is on ourselves and what’s in the building and what’s in the changing room,” said Curle.

“The external things like other teams and league position - other people within the organisation look at that and constantly remind me of that, but my focus is on what I'm working with and how I can get the best out of what I’ve got.

“Every game is massive because there’s three points available. Distance-wise and time-wise it’s probably closer than the Carlisle game,” Curle added on the significance of today’s fixture.

“But there’s three points available. If there were certain games where there were five points or six points available [this might be one of them], but there’s three points available.

“We’ve got to show that we want, and we need, to earn those three points.”