Michael Nelson had this to say about Hartlepool United players after falling to a resounding defeat against Swindon Town at the Suit Direct Stadium

Pools were on the wrong end of a 3-0 defeat at the Suit Direct Stadium against Swindon Town, who kept their play-off hopes alive in the process, as Graeme Lee’s side continue to struggle towards the end of the campaign.

Harry McKirdy scored twice before Mathieu Baudry added a late third as the Robins cruised to a fairly comfortable afternoon and inflicted a third straight home defeat on Pools who have now won just one in 10 league games.

And assistant boss Nelson, who once again stood in for Lee following his recent positive COVID-19 test, has said his players must start working harder if they are to end their struggles.

“They’ve got to show the fans and the manager and the rest of the staff that they’re willing to work harder than other teams with and without the ball,” said a frustrated Nelson.

“That’s what the fans want to see. Obviously they want to see goals, they want to see lovely flowing football if they can, but most of all they want to see people crashing into tackles and winning balls and if there’s a 50-50 you come out with it and we didn’t do that enough today.

“We need to be coming out with 60-40’s against you. That’s what the fans want to see. It gets as big a cheer as a goal.

“There hasn’t been enough of that desire, fight or resilience lately. We need to get that into them.

“It’s one of the hardest things to get into them because it’s not tactical or technical, it’s about desire and they’ve got to have that in themselves and we’ve got to try and figure out a way of turning that switch and getting it out of them or they get it out of each other on the pitch.”

Pools have now slumped to 15th in the League Two table and sit just three points above 20th placed Carlisle United ahead of the final two games of the season.