Hartlepool United manager Simon Grayson is ‘positive’ going into Saturday’s Enterprise National League fixture with Boreham Wood

Speaking to the local press, the Pools boss has touched upon the break the team has had to regroup over the busy climax to August.

“Look, everybody has the same schedule,

“It’s a positive environment, everybody’s pleased with four points over what I’ve been led to believe has been a jinx for the Club in the past with bank holidays.

“We’ve come in this morning, feeling refreshed and we are ready to go.”

Just under a month into the season, Grayson has dubbed his first four weeks of competitive football at Pools as ‘enjoyable’.

“It has been a really enjoyable period of time,

“We wanted to try and create a happy environment both on the pitch and off the pitch, and I think we’ve managed to do that.

“But we’ve still got a long way to go to where we want to get to come the end of the season, but we’ve built stepping stones.

“Laying the bricks and the foundations of what we need to do on a regular basis.”

On the morale front, the boss is happy with his players and their mentality.

“I’ve said all along, the players have been a joy to work with day in and day out in terms of wanting to learn about individuals and collectiveness as a team.

“I think they’ve also shown what epitomises this Football Club with the dedication and spirit about them to never give up when things don’t go our way.

Grayson was satisfied with the reaction to going behind on Monday against Southend United.

“That’s the first bit of adversity we have had at the weekend, going down and not playing as well as we’d like to.

“Full credit to the opposition, but we came through it.

“If somebody had offered me four points over that weekend, I think we’d have all said, ‘take that’ without any hesitation whatsoever.”

Pools welcome Boreham Wood to the Presitge Group Stadium, and Grayson expects another tough test.

“They’ve had some good results,

“You always want to get off to a positive start to carry the winning mentality going forward, and full credit to them.

“They’ve recruited some good players – I know Tom White very well,

“Other players that they have are good EFL and National League players.

“So we know it’s a real big test for us, but one we’re prepared for and looking forward to.

Grayson appreciates the bond that his opposite number Luke Garrard has with the Wood.

“They’re cohesive, they bounce off each other, I’m sure.

“They know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, the players and the manager and the supporters.

“It’s another challenge that we have to deal with, but we’re certainly being respectful of what they’ve done previously and what they’ve done in the last few weeks.

“But I’m sure that they’ll be looking at us thinking, we’ve had a decent start and we’ve got some good players,

“We can hurt them if we do our job, so we get another interesting challenge for us to deal with.”