Colchester Utd v Hartlepool Utd: Boss Dave Jones desperate to turn around dismal away form

Dave Jones is happy with the home form '“ now he wants Hartlepool United to perform away from the Northern Gas & Power Stadium.
Pools boss Dave JonesPools boss Dave Jones
Pools boss Dave Jones

Pools head to in-form Colchester United tomorrow perched precariously above the League Two trapdoor (kick-off 3pm).

Jones’s side are just three points above second-bottom Leyton Orient.

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In fact, should Pools lose at the Colchester Community Stadium, and the O’s beat fellow strugglers Cheltenham at Brisbane Road, the boys in blue will find themselves in the relegation zone.

“It has been a long time since an away win,” admitted Jones.

“It would be nice to get the three points – we start with one at kick-off and we’ll try to keep that and then hopefully go for the three.”

To say the results on the road are a concern are putting it mildly.

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Having begun the season by taking 11 away points from a possible 18, Pools are without a win on their travels since the 3-0 romp at Grimsby on the first Saturday of October.

Pools were then 13th but today stand 22nd and in real danger folllowing a sequence of only two draws and eight defeats in the next 10 trips.

Jones explains there is no point hiding from the league table or ignoring it.

But he hopes that if the team repeat last week’s display against Plymouth, when they held the second-top team to a 1-1 draw, they can get a result in Essex tomorrow, despite the U’s being up in seventh.

“You have to look [at the table,” said the boss.

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“It’s fairly tight down there, with the games coming thick and fast the table can change drastically in the space of few matches.

“We’re taking nothing for granted – we know what we have to do and we’ll be trying everything we can to do that.

“Colchester had a good victory in midweek against Wycombe and we’ve watched a couple of videos of them.

“It will be a tough game, but we believe, if we play the way we did the other day, we have a chance of getting the points.”

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Pools do have back-to-back home games to follow, though the second is against Exeter next Saturday, following the Tuesday six-pointer with 18th-placed Crewe.

But Jones added: “We can’t bank on them – we have to start picking up points away.

“This is probably why the club has been in the situation it has been, the form might have been good at home but poor away. That’s a trend we are trying to change.”

There have certainly been encouraging signs, especially the draw with Plymouth.

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“You saw how the fans appreciated what the players did,” said Jones, who welcomes back Louis Rooney to the squad after he was ineligible to face parent club Argyle.

“It’s probably the first time I had seen every player after a game dead on their feet.

“That’s what you want.

“We have to transfer that from home to away.”