Challinor's Pools Progress Helps Set The Record Straight

After all, this is a man who had to face up to losing his job of eight years because the opposition couldn’t get to the stadium.

It’s just over a year since AFC Fylde parted company with long-serving Challinor, half an hour after they were due to kick off against Sutton United.

A rail incident meant the Londoners couldn’t get there. So instead of prowling the touchline hunting down three very possible points to turn their season around, he was clearing his desk.

It clearly still acts as inspiration for the Hartlepool United manager today.

On Saturday he can show them what they are missing, the live BT Sport match against fellow high flyers Torquay United is perhaps the season's biggest yet.

Challinor said: “It’s been great here, but it’s been a strange 18 months for obvious reasons.

“You go from being successful for a very long time at AFC Fylde - 90 minutes away from the Football League while holding the FA Trophy - to having a bit of a hangover and losing your job.

“Your season is judged over 46 matches, not over 14 or 15. Things didn’t improve and the record was actually worse when we left the club.

“We came to Hartlepool and managed to really get things going, we’ve loved the experience.

“The hard bit is that there’s no closure with Fylde and it leaves a bitter pill.

“It’s sad, especially when you have been there for so long and given everything that you can.

“On reflection, did I need it? I probably did. Maybe both parties needed a fresh start. It’s a different club here, in terms of profile and what it could become.

“I’m lucky, my family have been a massive support. I’m travelling still from the north west. Without them, I just couldn’t do it.”

Making an impact in the four short football months he actually did have last season, the new campaign started superbly.

Wins over Aldershot, Chesterfield and Maidenhead had them leading the early way, with a thumping 6-0 FA Cup romp at Ilkeston Town thrown in for good measure.

But home draws with Bromley and Altrincham - a game they could have ultimately lost but for goalkeeper Ben Killip's late penalty heroics - has slightly taken the edge off.

Victory over the current National League leaders in front of the cameras changes all that.

“Over the past 12 months we’ve earned a lot of respect in terms of how teams come and set up against us,” he added.

“We lost our patience a little bit on Tuesday, but it’s always tough to break teams down.

“You have to be good enough and patient enough and manipulate the game to turn things your way. It’s difficult to have a go at them - you can’t play well every game.

“Once you have won three games and then you draw two, it can be a little bit flat, but we we wanted to rebuild the momentum from the end of last season and we’ve done that.”

He knows Torquay won’t come in search of a point this weekend.

“It’s two teams who want to play in an expansive manner,” he said. “It will be a good one for the TV - both have started the season really well.

“I think Torquay will come to Hartlepool and fancy themselves to win by taking us on in a game. A bit of a ‘we’re better than you’ style game.

“It should be open. Potentially there should be goals and hopefully we’ll get more than they do!”

It’s a different challenge for the manager after swapping the north west for the north east but he knows what size crowds they could be attracting when fans are finally allowed back in.

“It’s a different club off the pitch,” he added. “We’re starting from bare bones after what happened.

“We’re looking to build the club up and the players all go above and beyond.

“There’s been an air of negativity over perhaps the last ten years here. Now we’re seeing people forego bonuses and taking wage cuts to keep other members of staff in jobs.

“Because of that, there’s a siege mentality to be successful and really have a go at it.

“I love my job anyway, but there is a real special feeling about this group.”

He added: “But it’s a very strange year. If you asked 80 per cent of the teams they have a chance of the top seven.

“If you ask most if they are happy to just be in the division next year, they will say yes now. There is no saying what might happen.

“We’ve got our eye on one of those play-off positions. We’ve shown we can compete with most of the teams in this league.

“It would be great when fans are allowed back in that they’ve got something to really get behind.”