NATHAN Thomas admits to doing to serious soul searching last weekend.

As Hartlepool United floundered to a home defeat to Barnet, the attacker struggled; struggled to get the ball, suffered on it, didn’t get enough of it and when he did he wasted it.

Days later and as Pools head for Cheltenham tomorrow, two points short of safety with two games to go, he already has the answer to his problems.

It came on Sunday evening when Dave Jones was dumped as manager, replaced by four people from within; four who know the players inside out and what makes them tick.

Get Nathan Thomas ticking and Pools have every chance of surviving. There may be more soul searching after next Saturday’s final game, but before then Thomas feels a lot better already.

“When you get a manager who tells you the sky is the limit and then you get a manager who tells you the only way you are going is down, how does that make you feel? If I said you weren’t very good at your job how would you feel?’’ he asked this week at The Northern Gas and Power Stadium after training.

“We will see the old Nathan back now, confidence is the biggest thing in football. People actually feel they are good players again.

“I actually questioned myself last Saturday for the first time ever. Never happened before, never. Am I good enough? What’s happened to me?

“When I am at my best I have a bit of a licence, but we didn’t work like that. It was hard. I would get the ball and drift into areas across the pitch, I would get involved all over. Recently it was about staying in position and it didn’t matter if I didn’t touch the ball for 90 minutes.

“It didn’t work did it?’’

Jones’ reign didn’t work. Three wins from 17 games and he was on his way, the latest manager to fail to solve the conundrum that is Pools.

Now it’s the turn, for two games at least, of Matthew Bates, aided and abetted by Billy Paynter, Stuart Parnaby and Ian Gallagher. There’s already been a fresher feel around the place this week, players and staff enjoying their work again.

Now Thomas is confident that outlook will be transferred to the pitch in the next two games following the most disappointing of spells.

“Lewie (Alessandra) was brilliant early on, he had a dozen assists,’’ added Thomas. “It dried up and there’s a reason why and a reason why midfielders stopped scoring goals and we started conceding more goals.

“I pushed myself so hard to come back from injury because I wanted to help the club. I came back too quick and I paid for it, but we were dropping down and I wanted to stop that.

“If this goes under we are the team who took Hartlepool down. We don’t want that. As soon as anything went wrong on a Saturday we were deflated and people expected us to react and come back from it, but you don’t have the confidence to do that.

“I hit the corner flag with shots on Saturday – six months ago they fly in. It’s confidence.

“But now we have it again, it was all about shape and being regimented. Now it’s playing with freedom. They score three? We score four now. We did it at the start of the season and we knew we could outscore teams.’’

And Thomas added: “Training has been brilliant this week, the lads have loved it. Back to the intensity, everyone had a smile on their faces and the belief we will get out of it is massive now.

“Maybe after Saturday some of us, me included, may have felt it was all over. It’s like we have turned the clock back months to when we were flying and playing well.

“It’s amazing what such a change can do on the team. We will be a totally different team – we will be the Hartlepool of old, not the Hartlepool of the last two months, on Saturday.

“I wouldn’t have paid to watch us, but we will now play the way we can to get the best out of us.’’