HAWKES IS AIMING TO SOAR HIGH
JOSH HAWKES says Hartlepool United’s FA Cup dream has had to be shelved over Christmas – thanks to the delivery of a gruelling festive fixture schedule.
The midfield ace struck a fine, looping winning goal in the third minute of extra-time as National League Pools toppled League Two Exeter City 1-0 in their FA Cup replay on Tuesday night.
It earned Dave Challinor’s men a third-round trip to League One high-fliers Oxford United on January 4 but Hawkes says Pools minds are now focused elsewhere.
Yesterday’s trip to Harrogate Town in the FA Trophy was the first of a trilogy of matches against Simon Weaver’s men over the festive period with home clashes against Dagenham & Redbridge and leaders Barrow coming in between.
With that in mind, Hawkes must, for now, try to keep a lid on his cup euphoria and help continue the momentum for a potential promotion push.
“It was a great night, both for me personally and the club,” local lad Hawkes told The NLP. “To win against a team that are second in League Two and pushing for promotion is massive.
“It’s a big opportunity now to go to Oxford and try to win. It’s going to be tough, they are on a long unbeaten run at the moment, but hopefully the Christmas period will have taken something out of them.
“The performance showed that we can compete at higher level and it’s up to us now to take that in the league.
“We’ve got some very tough fixtures coming up so the Christmas and New Year period is going to be massive in determining how far we have come as a group.
“All last season we were floating around lower to mid-table, but this year we want to be up in the play-offs and competing. It’s a very tight league this year, anyone can beat anyone, so if we can put a run of five or six games together, that could really push us up there.”