Under-18’s Head Coach Matthew Blinkhorn was disappointed that his side couldn’t hold onto their lead against Notts County but is proud of the fight the team showed after going down to 10 men.
James Butterworth gave Pool the lead in the first-half, but the Seasiders were down to 10 men early in the second-half after right-back Ky-Mani Leliendal was shown a second yellow card.
Despite being down a man Butterworth grabbed himself another goal to make it 2-0 before the hosts fought back to level the game.
Shay Mannix looked like he had won the game for Pool only for Notts County to grab another equaliser in the dying seconds.
Blinkhorn is taking positives from the game though, despite the late disappointment.
“(It was) chaotic, certainly in the second-half,” he said.
“(In the) first half I thought we had good control in the game for the majority, created some good chances and was deservedly winning the game.
“Second-half obviously Ky-Mani (Leliendal) being sent off; we found it a little bit tough but I’m proud of the way that the players still tried to press and showed loads of energy in the game.
“We managed to nick a goal to go 3-2 but unfortunately couldn’t hold on at the end.”
Blinkhorn was pleased with the character his side showed after being pegged back to 2-2.
“Yeah, obviously (it was) disappointing to go from 2-0 to 2-2 but the character that they showed to get another goal was really good,” he said.
“It was brilliant from Shay (Mannix), he came across from the 17’s game and brought even more energy to the game and got his just rewards for going and pressing and winning the ball high up the pitch.
“So yeah, it was good, just a shame that we didn’t hold on to the result.”
Attention turns to Cheltenham now on Tuesday in the quarter-final of the PDL Cup and Blinkhorn is looking forward to the challenge.
“Yeah, it’s a good game for us on Tuesday, we’re looking forward to it,” he said.
“We’ll prepare right over the next couple of days, so we’ll have a recovery day tomorrow and we’ll do a bit of prep on what Cheltenham might look like for Tuesday.
“We’ve got all the Under-16’s because it’s half term as well, so they’ll get in and around the environment to see what that’s like.
“Then we’ll go to Cheltenham on Tuesday and hopefully get a result.”