HARTLEPOOL UNITED’S players have been challenged to show they mean business by winning three matches inside eight days to power into a play-off place.

Pools’ home defeat to Eastleigh last Saturday has left them as close to the relegation zone as the top five, even if their lowly 15th position paints a bleaker picture.

And Harrison, whose side won four of their previous five unbeaten matches, is certain that his Hartlepool team are capable of collecting a maximum nine point haul from the next few matches.

Hartlepool travel to Woking and Solihull on the next two Saturdays with a visit of Barrow sandwiched in between on Tuesday.

There is currently a six point gap to the play-off zone and seven points separating them from leaders Sutton United.

Harrison said: “Looking back we had Dagenham, Wrexham, Orient, Eastleigh and now Woking … they are all up there. Or at least historically Eastleigh have been with their decent budget.

“It’s been a tough period for us and if someone had said we would take seven points from those then everyone would be over the moon after the way we started the season.

“We didn’t have that cushion to drop any more points. It’s been positive. We are creating chances, we conceded two poor goals last week and that can be avoided with a bit of tweaking on the training ground.

“I don’t think Eastleigh had another shot on our goal from open play apart from their two goals, which is a positive, we didn’t get battered, we just missed chances and weren’t poor.”

The manner of Callum Howe and Mark Yeates’ goals last Saturday at Victoria Park still rankle, with Harrison urging his players to make sure there are no repeats this season.

“You can’t give away silly goals and not take your chances,” he said. “Leading up to that game, the five game run, we have taken opportunities, taken chances that probably weren’t as good as last Saturday.

“But I am going to be critical, I would like to go through the season without conceding on set pieces. Sometimes it can be down to a good delivery. But it wasn’t, it was just two balls swung into the box.

“If players had been in their positions then we wouldn’t concede. It’s not something I will let lie. I am a big believer in we shouldn’t concede at set pieces. It’s switching off for that micro second, you need to stay focused.”

Hartlepool hope to include new signing James Thorne in the match-day squad at Woking, with Harrison keen to have an extra attacking option following the injury to Jake Cassidy.

Woking boss Anthony Limbrick knows his side can hit top spot by defeating Hartlepool and claim a third win in a row – but he still think the hosts will be the underdogs.

"We have another tough game and we want to try and continue our form for as long as we can," said Limbrick. "We have won five games out of six at home and being strong at home was something we said we wanted to do in the summer.

"We wanted to make our place a tough place to come and put teams on the back foot, be aggressive and try to take games to the opposition.

"We have done that so far and the results have been good. The fans have also been good on our side and we have been able to show them what we can do.

"Hartlepool have been a Football League club for many, many years and have a big budget. They will no doubt be good, and I think the pressure might be off them playing away from home.

"We hope to have as many people coming to the game, that's what you want you play the biggest games. That's what we all want from the staff and management.”