Askey Knows Pools Must Benefit From Unwanted Break

The former York City and Macclesfield boss accepts things aren’t as they should be at Victoria Park after six defeats in their last seven National League matches.

As well as their stunning push for points, Pools plunged out of the FA Cup to Chester leaving them with a blank weekend.

With their next game - a home match against fellow out-of-form side Ebbsfleet United - not until November 11, he knows the importance of the break.

Despite their spiral, Hartlepool are only five points shy of the play-off places and their manager feels they have a great chance of claiming one if they can arrest their slide.

“It’s massive that we start again,” said Askey in an interview with the Hartlepool Mail, speaking after Saturday’s first-half collapse at home to Rochdale.

“We’ve got to regroup and have a look at how we play and why we’re not getting results and why we’re conceding too many goals. The goals that we concede are really poor and it’s been happening all season, so there’s obviously something wrong.
“So we’ve got two weeks now to sort ourselves out and to try and get back to winning ways - hopefully we can get one or two back.

“That may help us. But we’ve got to look at why. It’s not just one thing why we’re conceding goals. It’s decision making that we’ve got to improve. All we can do is work really hard and hopefully it changes things.”