TEAM spirit is something which you can’t buy, it’s forged naturally; and Hartlepool United are seeing the rewards of a strong dressing room.

Pools have a spirit of late and a unity which has been lacking within the dressing room in recent times.

In the last three games they have twice scored last-minute winners, before turning around a single-goal deficit at South Shields in the FA Cup on Saturday.

And boss Craig Harrison feels it’s all down the unity within his squad. .

“The players showed spirit again and with that spirit you have a chance no matter what happens. It’s not something you can buy or falsely implicate,’’ he insisted after Pools made it one defeat in ten games at the weekend.

“Looking back, what’s probably happened, looking back with a clear head, the four-five weeks of the season at the start when it hasn’t gone for us we have good pros like Woodsy, Loachy, Feaths, Mags to name a few, you either fragment or come together.

“It’s one of the best things to happen for team spirit. You can’t bring players in for that spirit, it’s something that is formed, something that happens naturally.

“It has come together over the opening weeks of the season. On the sidelines they see the lads giving their all every week and sometimes we don’t play as well as we can do, but the one thing we have got is real team spirit.’’

Harrison admitted at Filtrona Park that a heated half-time dressing room inquest into why Pools were trailing by a single goal helped turn the game around and earn a spot in the first round.

He added: “Measure that spirit at what happened at half-time with people having a go at each other.

“You accept it, don’t spit the dummy out and say you can’t speak to me like that. You are a man, accept it, get on with it and move on. A good professional will do that. Don’t do it and you are told, told by everyone else in there.

“The players at half-time got together. Every good team I played in, the players in there will tell how it is. The players on the receiving end of it, just as importantly, have to be men too.

“They get on with it, it’s not personal or anyone having a go at it for any other reason than for the good of the team.

“I think anyone who has doubted the spirit of late is crazy. We have stuck together as a team as a unit and we have won games without playing well.’’