This is where Hartlepool United find out whether the turnaround is real. Not just a decent week, not just a small lift in mood, but the start of something sturdier. After a miserable spell that included 10 defeats in 12 matches, Pete Wild is asking for something simple and difficult in equal measure: sheer confidence.
That is the message before the midweek trip to AFC Fylde, and it makes perfect sense. Hartlepool United have beaten managerless Forest Green Rovers and newly-promoted Hornchurch in consecutive league matches, and they are suddenly looking at a third successive National League win. For a team that had not managed back-to-back league wins since the beginning of August, that is no small step.
But this is also exactly the sort of fixture that exposes whether a recovery has substance. Hartlepool United have already lost all three National League Cup games this term, and they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Marine. Strip away the optimism of the recent league results and there is still plenty of evidence that this side has spent too much of the season chasing itself.
A test of nerve, not just form
That is why Wild’s call for sheer confidence matters. He is not asking for fireworks. He is asking his players to carry the belief that has returned in the last two matches and use it again at AFC Fylde. The danger for Hartlepool United is obvious: a good spell can vanish quickly if they travel cautiously, play within themselves and let the mood drift back to where it was.
The encouraging part is that momentum is finally on their side. Two league wins in a row does not erase the damage of the earlier run, but it does change the atmosphere around the club. One more victory would mean three successive National League wins for the first time this season, and that would say a lot more about the direction Hartlepool United are heading in than any short-term patch of form ever could.
So the challenge at Fylde is straightforward, even if the history behind it is not. Carry the confidence. Keep the belief. And prove that the recent upturn is more than a brief interruption to a difficult season.
