Keith Curle reveals what pleased him the most in Hartlepool United's win over Crawley Town

Curle's side claimed a huge win at the foot of the League Two table after Rollin Menayese headed Hartlepool into the lead midway through the second half before Reds defender Travis Johnson turned into his own net 10 minutes from time.

It was Pools' first away win of the season and just their third in the league this campaign.

But it wasn’t the goals which pleased Curle the most about his side’s performance, it was the fact they were able to shut out Matthew Etherington’s men and keep just a second clean sheet under his stewardship - the only other coming in his first game in charge against Gillingham in September.

“It’s a clean sheet away from home in an important game,” said Curle.

“If you keep clean sheets away from home you’ve always got a chance. It’s as simple as that.”

Curle added of the performance: “I thought the first goal was vitally important for both teams.

“I think they’ve got some good technicians and some good dynamics in their team so we had to be solid, we had to be disciplined and we had to have an understanding of what our roles were.

“I still think there’s more to come. Some of our positional play - we didn’t break out from our shape as well as what I was hoping but I understand that with the position we’re in. That will come the more results we get and the more confidence we build into the squad.”