Nicky Featherstone discusses his first professional brace in Hartlepool United's 2-0 win over Notts County and whether he meant either goal

Two deliveries into the box from the 31-year-old found their way into the back of the next to help Pools claim a fourth straight home win and move to within a point of the play-off places.

On his goals, Featherstone admitted: “I’m going to say the second one I’ve meant to put it where it went, the first one definitely not!”

“The first one, because of the conditions, you might get mistakes from the defence or the goalkeeper and they’re difficult ones to deal with when the winds are that strong.

“The second one, you play towards that back stick and hope someone gets across the ball but if not then it does tend to go in.

“There’s a massive buzz around the place but we’re not getting carried away because we know what this league is like.

“There are four teams on 51 points and we’re right around where we want to be and these three games, today and the next two are massive because the teams are all around us.”

Despite scoring a joint career-high of four goals this season, Featherstone has only had the chance to celebrate once.

“The other goals have been to get us back into games so I haven’t celebrated,” he added.

“I don’t think I celebrated the first one here, I was a bit embarrassed but I definitely did for the second one!

“I don’t have too many people come and watch me with the distance I live away but I had two of my friends come today so it was nice for them to see me score two.”

But it could have been more than two as Featherstone continued: “If Macca [Southam-Hales] finds me with the cross, I get the tap-in but I don’t find myself in the box too often, to be honest.

“If I’m going to score then it’s probably going to be from a set-piece or outside the box but a tap-in would be nice now and again!”