What Dave Challinor had to say about Hartlepool United's ‘promotion form’ following Sutton win to go second in the National League table

Dave Challinor’s side beat fellow high-flyers Sutton United 1-0 at Victoria Park on Saturday afternoon to bounce back from the previous weekend’s frustrating defeat at Weymouth.

Overall, Pools are the in form side in the fifth tier having picked up 18 points from the last 24 available. Despite admitting his side are showing the form needed to get promoted, Challinor isn’t getting carried away.

“It’s certainly promotion form if you can keep it going but that’s the crucial thing,” he told The Mail.

“What matters is to be consistent over the season, not just six games or eight game spells. The pleasing thing for me is that we lost last week but we bounced back with a win against a team who are above us in the table, it’s a huge positive.”

Challinor was also pleased to see Pools ‘grind out’ the three points on Saturday.

“Both sides cancelled each other out and have better quality than what was on show but you could see it was two decent teams,” he added.

"Knowing how we can play, if we can add that [ability to grind out wins] to our arsenal then we’ll have a good chance because you have to know how to win games in that manner in order to be successful in this division. That will only reinforce the confidence in the players that they can do that.

“And the likelihood is that we’ll have to do that a few times over the next month with the amount of games we’re playing.”

A message from the Football Clubs Editor

Our aim is to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative Hartlepool United coverage 365 days a year.

This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to, please consider taking out a subscription to our new sports-only package here.

We’ve launched a new transfer window special offer for readers to get 20% off our subscription package.

Use the promo code TRANSFER20 to sign up here.

Your support is much appreciated. Richard Mennear, Football Clubs Editor