Craig Hignett admitted to many of his players had an off day
as Pools slipped to a disappointing opening day defeat to Sutton United at
The U's took advantage of a sluggish start from Pools to
score twice in the first half hour before Gime Toure's goal just before the break
gave Hignett's men hope of a comeback.However, the visitors held firm in the face of some strong
pressure in the second half and then sealed their win with a breakaway goal in
injury time.“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb by going 2-0 down,”Hignett told Pools TV.
“We had too many players off it today; we were really poor in
the first half, we didn't get going at all and we looked like rabbits in the headlights
at times.“The second half was different and we had a right go, penning
them in their own half but we weren't good enough to finish it but they
defended really well and came and did a job on us.“Once we got back in it with Gime just before half-time you
felt we would at least get the equaliser but it didn't happen and too many of
the players had an off day I think.“I don't know if that is complacency – maybe a few of themturned up thinking it was going to be easy but we need to be better than that.
“Like I said in the week, I won't get too down when we're
beaten just like I won't get carried away if we go on a run so now we have a tough
game on Tuesday to focus on.”Click here now to watch our full post-match video interview with Craig Hignett.