Pools head coach assesses his side's chances of a late play-off push following unbeaten run

Pools recorded a third successive win for the first time since the beginning of last season on Saturday, beating relegated Ebbsfleet 3-2 thanks to Sam Folarin's late winner.

Football is a fickle game and it wasn't long ago that Limbrick was under pressure from all sides after a run of eight matches without a win left Pools looking nervously over their shoulders towards the bottom four. Last month's visit of a resurgent Boston outfit who arrived at the Prestige Group Stadium having won five away games in a row had the potential to drag Pools right into the mire, only for Limbrick's side to produce an impressive performance and win 4-1. All of a sudden, a run of five games unbeaten has helped lift Pools back into the top half of the National League table, leaving them with a slim chance of gatecrashing the top seven.

Of course, a slim chance is better than no chance at all and Pools were written off last month as another underwhelming season threatened to fizzle out. Limbrick's side might well need to win all of their remaining five matches to sneak into the play-off places, but the fact that the gap now stands at just six points means there is a sliver of hope. A number of the sides above Pools have been struggling for form of late, with Gateshead losing six of their last seven games and Halifax without a win in their last five, scoring just once in that time. Pools still have to play both Gateshead and Rochdale, two sides who are, theoretically at least, within their sights.

Yet for all fans might be allowing themselves to dream of another date with destiny, Limbrick is keeping his feet firmly on the ground and the Australian insists his side are focusing on taking things one game at a time.

"We'll continue to approach the games in the same way we have done recently," he said.

"I know it's a boring answer, but it's one game at a time and all we're thinking about is Dagenham next weekend.

"We haven't been thinking beyond the next game, we haven't thought about the run we've been on and we haven't set any points targets.

"We're just really focusing on each game and that's what we're going to keep trying to do.

"It was great to be able to make the fans happy and to get another home win. We've won three games in a row now, something that hasn't happened before this season so huge credit to everyone for that."

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