How Hartlepool United's defensive display against Scunthorpe is a small positive for Graeme Lee's side

A fourth win on the bounce eluded Hartlepool yesterday, but they did secure a clean-sheet, one that will be very welcome at the Suit Direct Stadium.

You have to go back until the end of September to see the last time Pools kept a clean sheet in the league and for Graeme Lee and Michael Nelson, two centre-backs in their playing days, this was a small positive from yesterday’s game:

“As a team, we said can we tighten up goals conceded straight away and that’s what we tried to do – that’s your starting block to build upon and I thought our effort and desire for that was there.” Lee said post-match.

"But you still want to dominate the ball a little bit more and utilise what we’ve got as a team.

"We’re probably not great at the first or second ball in the sense of going long because of what we have at the moment.

"When we get it, we can move it and we can move it well. It’s just getting that balance now of lets be a bit dogged defensively, let’s take risks away from ourselves but when we get the opportunity to play, don’t ignore it.”

So what was Hartlepool’s plan in attack? Set-up in a 3-5-2 formation, Jamie Sterry and David Ferguson provided the width and the support to the pair of Mark Cullen and Luke Molyneux who started the day up-front.

As Lee revealed, it was the duo of Sterry and Ferguson that he believed could cause most damage to a compact Scunthorpe side:

"We thought our wing-backs were key to try and get out [of defence] when we watched [Scunthorpe play].

"I just think we probably didn’t use that enough on the switch of play and they probably started a bit too high, or they were too high at times.

"I said to them, sometimes we just have to have a bit more trust in ourselves, we’re good players. Sometimes we can give the ball to players who are under a bit of pressure, just to draw them [the opposition] out and we can work around them.”

However, Lee also revealed that conditions on Saturday didn’t help his side and that they probably helped their visitors just as much as it hindered his team:

"It disrupted a little bit. It didn’t help the game. I don’t know how much it affected Scunthorpe because they play that style and they just try disrupt you and make it difficult to play against.

"I still think we could have used the ball a little better and try and get into areas and create a little more but it was a dogged game and it was a game you had to roll your sleeves up, defend at times and we only had a handful of times where you could see what we can do.”

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