Pools Academy Manager, Ian McGuckin, believes his side can take the positives from Saturday's cup exit into the rest of the league season.
Hartlepool United Academy were knocked out the EFL Youth Alliance Cup on Saturday morning away to Preston North End in the semi-final northern stage. Pools went one-nil down after a minute, and despite a promising display, McGuckin's side couldn't find the all-important equaliser.
"We got off to the worst possible start," assessed McGuckin.
"It meant we were chasing the game, which is always difficult away from home. But credit to the lads because we fought our way back into the game and for large periods, we looked likely to score an equaliser.
"Both teams had some really good chances - unfortunately for us, we just fell short on the day.
"We've had a good cup journey and the lads can be proud of the effort they've put in. Now we can learn from that, build on our application and focus on the league campaign for the rest of the season."
Pools now face eight games inside the next four weeks. McGuckin's outfit are straight back on the road on Tuesday afternoon, with a trip to Mansfield Town in the EFL Youth Alliance (1pm kick-off).
"I'd rather play games than train," stated the Academy Manager.
"It's a good opportunity for other lads to step into the team and gain more minutes. We've still got players out on loan so we need to find a balance for them, whether they play for us or get minutes at senior level.
"We've had some really good games against Mansfield in the past, they're usually quite high-scoring, so we're looking forward to it.
"For us, we need to make sure we're tight and compact, but also not take away from our attacking threat. We want to be ruthless and score lots of goals - have an excitement about us.
"Joel Ingram is the only real injury we've got - he's been struggling with his knee for the last few weeks. Louis Stephenson has been called up to the first team recently so we'll have to discuss that. Other than that, we've got a clean bill of health and we're looking forward to Tuesday."
Their next home fixture takes place on Saturday, March 2 against Burton Albion at Blackhall (11am kick-off).