HARTLEPOOL UNITED’S first three games left more questions than answers; last night’s home encounter with Chester left the manager with something else to ponder.

While the opening matches were a bit of a muddle, the only query was a simple one: “How didn’t we win that?’’ asked boss Craig Harrison.

After falling a goal behind with less than a minute on the clock, and that coming off the back of Saturday’s humbling at Maidenhead, it would have been easy for Pools to crumble.

Instead they took the game to Chester and the only surprise was that they only scored one and didn’t win.

Jake Cassidy’s header, his second goal of the season, got Pools level. They also hit the bar three times.

An uneasy start to the season looks to be turning for the better. Saturday’s opponents Bromley, however, last night put six past Leyton Orient. Pools will not be able to make the sort of defensive mistakes which have blighted their last two performances.

Because for all their attacking verve, it was all about getting back into the game after the most woeful of starts.

On Saturday it was Louis Laing who gifted a goal to the opposition with a slack pass. This time it was the turn of his central defensive partner.

Scott Harrison’s pass to keeper Scott Loach was short and accepted by Ross Hannah. He burst away, and his shot was saved by Loach, who seemed to have the loose ball gobbled up, but instead it fell to James Akintunde who netted.

Only 57 seconds had passed and Pools were behind.

Pools almost levelled on eight minutes as Ryan Donaldson rolled a ball across goal and out of reach of Connor Newton’s lunge.

Chester had the ball in the net again, after the Pools’ defence struggled again to cope. An offside flag sort of spared their defensive blushes.

Going forward, Pools looked sharp and attacked in numbers. The crowd appreciated their efforts on the front foot. This is the sort of football Harrison wants from his side, the sort he said was his style.

Nicky Deverdics, impressive and adding some verve to the midfield, put a Carl Magnay cross onto the bar from close range when he looked a certain scorer, then Jake Cassidy rifled a shot over from distance.

Magnay was getting forward, his cross was met first-time by Deverdics and he connected sweetly. His shot beat keeper Conor Mitchell and crashed off the underside of the bar.

Pools still pressed in the second-half and a tidy passing move saw Newton push a low shot weakly wide when he should have done better.

After hitting the bar twice in the first-half, they followed up with another on 67 minutes.

A corner was cleared as far as Magnay and, 22 yards out, he arced a volley at goal. Again Mitchell was beaten, again the ball bounced back of the underside of the bar.

The long-deserved leveller did arrive on 70 minutes. Keeper Mitchell came for a cross, a corner returned into the area by Harrison, but was outjumped by Jake Cassidy who headed in from eight yards.

There was a positivity about the place, something different to the norm. Pools were level, but playing with a confidence as if they were three in front.

Newton went close to putting Pools ahead, Amond wasted a free-kick from 20 yards. Keeper Mitchell was struggling under pressure and he had plenty of it to deal with.

At the other end, Loach had to get down low to keep out a direct Ross Hannah header.

“We have to be ruthless in all area,’’ said Harrison. “Defensively we have to be better for 90 minutes, attacking third everyone had to be a bit better and a bit more ruthless and we will get there.

“We conceded early, but it’s happening too many times. I don’t believe in coincidences, I like to know all I can and statistically we could have had seven points if it wasn’t for first-half mistakes.

“It’s a game with human error and we have to make sure it doesn’t happen regularly. Once or twice is a mistake, three or four and it’s a bad choice.’’

He added: “It’s about resilience and keeping going to the end. That’s the best we played by a million miles and we are only 75 per cent there. It was an improvement on the three games we have had before this.

“Create that many chances at home and we will win a lot of home games.

“We are getting better and it’s a challenge every day to come back and improve and we showed when we take the game to the opposition that we can be dangerous. We need to do it regularly. For 89 minutes and 45 seconds today we did well.’’