Simon Grayson vows to do "whatever it takes" as Hartlepool United look to return to winning ways against Brackley Town

While Pools fans would, of course, love to see their side light up Victoria Park with a ruthless and free-flowing performance, Grayson's priority is on making sure his team return to winning ways on Saturday. Despite a strong start to the season that sees Pools in the play-off places after losing just one of their opening eight games, Grayson's side are now without a win in their last four matches. After coming from behind to salvage a point against well-fancied Southend on bank holiday Monday, Pools fans had been hoping to see their side kick on ahead of successive home games against Boreham Wood, who were promoted back to the National League under the inimitable Luke Garrard last term, and slow-starting Boston. With most home supporters hoping for a minimum of four points, Pools drew 0-0 with the Wood after having centre-half Maxim Kouogun sent off before failing to beat the Pilgrims despite dominating large parts of the contest in midweek. Pools then faced their toughest test of the season when they travelled to unbeaten league leaders Forest Green Rovers on Saturday but tasted defeat for the first time after going down 1-0 despite a spirited performance. In spite of some positives from the trip to Gloucestershire, that means Pools have managed just three points from the last 12 available and have lost ground on many of the sides around them.

There is perhaps a bit of pressure, then, on this weekend's visit of a Brackley side who were crowned National League North champions last season and knocked Pools out of the FA Cup, a result which spelled the end for controversial former manager Darren Sarll. While Pools have been rock solid at the back, keeping five clean sheets in eight games this season, goals have proven harder to come by. Although Alex Reid, who scored an impressive 17 times in 32 games for a struggling Wealdstone side last term, has made a reasonable start to life at Victoria Park and has managed three goals in his first eight Pools matches, fellow new recruit Danny Johnson has found things more difficult and is yet to open his account in the North East. Indeed, no player other than Reid has scored more than once this season, while their total of nine goals makes Pools the second lowest scorers in the top half of the National League table; Mani Dieseruvwe, who left Pools over the summer, has scored seven times in his first seven games for Rochdale this term.

Brackley, meanwhile, have adapted well to life in the National League under the impressive Gavin Cowan. The Saints are 14th having won two, drawn three and lost two of their opening seven matches. Even so, the Northamptonshire outfit are themselves in need of a good result this weekend to regain some momentum having failed to win any of their last four matches. There is, therefore, a degree of pressure on both sides, with Simon Grayson determined to ensure Pools return to winning ways in front of their home fans this weekend.

"I want us to have the same mentality and approach for every home game," he told The Red Radio.

"If we were playing Forest Green, Carlisle or York at home, one of the big teams, I'd be expecting and wanting us to go out and win the game. We play Brackley, a newly-promoted team, we know a lot about them and we've done a lot of work on them. Fair play, they've had a decent run of results. We know what we need to do, we need to be ruthless in both boxes. Last Saturday, we probably weren't ruthless enough in both boxes and probably the same against Boston where we don't defend a set-piece well enough and we then don't take our chances. We've spoken a lot about being ruthless in both boxes over the course of the season, and we've just got to go up a notch or two on that.

"If we have to win 1-0 on Saturday I'll take that. Our approach is that we want to go and win the game as well as we can, whether that's a good battering or a really good performance where you win one or two-nil. You certainly can't be taking things lightly, you just have to crack on and do whatever it takes to win games. That's been the approach against all of the teams that we've played this year."

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