Craig Hignett admitted he was pleased by many aspects of his side's performance despite seeing them slip to a 4-0 pre-season friendly defeat to Middlesbrough on Sunday.
The Pools boss felt his players didn't find the same ruthlessness in front of goal that had been on display in their first three pre-season outings but he did find plenty to be encouraged by.
“It was a different game to the ones we've been used to be I am pleased because it was a really good test,” Hignett told Pools PlayerHD.
“I thought we played well at times; we had a lot of the ball and played through them but the bits that were the difference were in the final thirds.
“It was about how clinical they were in comparison to how clinical we were – I thought we created six chances where we should have made the keeper work and we haven't.
“We've not managed to score which is disappointing given what we have done in the first three games but there's a lot to be encouraged by because I did think we looked a threat.
“We're obviously a bit more physical and a bit more powerful this year but we haven't gone away from what we want to do in terms of playing football and there were some pleasing bits today.
“It was a really good crowd and Boro brought 1,600 which was fantastic and I think they saw an entertaining game where both sides tried to play the right way.
“It's disappointing because we were probably worth a couple of goals but we have to learn from that and thankfully we won't come up against that type of quality every week.”