Michael Nelson returns with another entry in his blog as he talks about the past week at Hartlepool United.

If you've got any questions or comments on this article then send us an email to media@hartlepoolunited.co.uk

Defeat at Leicester...

"To be fair, Leicester played quite well on Saturday. They have a lot of high expectations there from the home fans and they pressed us from the off and had a great deal of the possession. Obviously we were disappointed to concede a goal in that early spell but we seemed to weather the storm after that and started coming back in to it. We had some chances in the first half and then at the end of the second half and we could really have got a point in the end."

Friday's game with Swindon...

"Our last Friday game at The Vic was a good one for us. It was heavy rain that night and I think when the surface gets slick like that it helps us because we can zip it around and really play our football. Hopefully we can get that going again this week and cause some problems for Swindon.

"They are below us in the table at the moment but I still think it's quite early to be reading anything in to that - add another five or six games and then we'll start to see it sorting itself out. We need to get some points on the board so that when the league does settle down we'll be in a strong position."

The signing of Kevin Kyle...

"He'll be a real handful for defences in the League One. I know he's suffered from injuries in the past few seasons because I think he was doing really well before that and was getting international call-ups. I think he's on the mend now and he'll want to get back to that level and hopefully this can prove to be his stepping stone.

"When you're playing against a player of that build it doesn't matter if they have good game or a bad game they are always a handful. Steve Howard is a good example of that - he's a nuisance and he never lets you get a free header which means that even if you win them you just knock them down to the midfield runners. And with the likes of Antony Sweeney, Gary Liddle and Ritchie Jones available to us hopefully they can benefit in that way.

"It would only take a couple of injuries or suspensions and the squad would be a little stretched so it's good that we've been able to bring a player of Kevin's experience in to add that competition for places. He'll certainly give us something different."

Training ground fun...

"We were doing some work on the training ground on Tuesday and working on a few things but because of the Reserves game we were light on numbers so were using some of the coaching staff to step in to certain positions.

"We had Goalkeeper Coach George Wood in the Makelele role, Fitness Coach Dan Lewis otherwise known as Agbonlahor, with the gaffer and Ian Butterworth also involved!

"At one point, the gaffer turned to play a square pass for George and he fell over as he played the ball. Of course, because it was the gaffer, we all kept straight faces apart from Antony Sweeney who couldn't help but burst in to fits of laughter!! We had a bit of a laugh about it - it was a funny moment!

Plus, Richard Barker told me he experienced a real low at training this week when the gaffer turned and mistook him for Ian Butterworth. He said he's had some tough times in the game but being mistaken for 'Butts' is an all-time low!"