POOLS ARE STARTING TO FIND THEIR FEET AT LAST

HARTLEPOOL have arrived at the National League party quicker than last season – but Matthew Bates has called for judgement to be reserved on his side until the ten-game mark.

Pools made it two wins from two thanks to goals by Michael Woods and Liam Noble, which cancelled out a Dagenham opener from Alex McQueen.

It took them six games to get their first three points in their debut season at this level – now they have two wins at the same stage this campaign.

And while Bates is pleased with what he has seen so far, he doesn’t think anyone has seen the best of his side.

“We are absolutely over the moon with the win,” said Bates.

“It was a poor first half but we had an honest conversation about the performance in the changing room and it improved in the second half.

“We have achieved nothing yet, though. We are 12th now but we know we could be better. We can only judge how good we are at this level after 10 games.”

The hosts got off to the brighter start with Elliot Romain coming closest to breaking the deadlock – his header on the quarter hour had Scott Loach troubled but it sailed narrowly over the bar.

At the other end, Pools were struggling to get inform Luke James and Niko Muir into the action.

Last season’s top scorer Woods was keen to step in where his frontmen could not, though. A rasping effort from 25 yards rattled Elliott Justham’s bar – even if the keeper had seen it, he would have struggled to get hands to it.

The Daggers looked a threat in the break, throughout, and made Pools pay on 36 when Romain broke the high line of Pools back three to draw in Loach and square to McQueen for 1-0.

And that’s how it remained at the break, although Woods had something to say about that just two minutes after the restart. A cross from the right was half cleared into Woods’ path and he hammered in via the leg of a home defender. Former Pools man Tomi Adeloye’s attempts to restore the status quo went begging as he guided a header wide, when unmarked. But it was the visitors who turned the game on its head on 62 when Noble’s shot was deemed to have been stopped by a Daggers hand and the midfielder stepped up to send Justham the wrong way. And that was the way it stayed as Pools made it two wins from two. Daggers boss Peter Taylor said: “We were really disappointed with the second half. We let our levels drop after what was a decent performance in the first 45. They are two poor goals to concede.”