NINE goals away from home, only 16 scored at home. Never mind the 31 conceded on the road and 26 shipped at home, it’s fairly plain to see where Hartlepool United’s problems lie.

Former boss Colin Cooper often said the best piece of advice he was given as a League Two manager was that it’s all about what goes on in both penalty areas.

There’s more than one reason why Pools are bottom of the Football League, and their goals for and goals against tallys are as stark as their league position.

Faced with back to back away games at Morecambe today and Oxford on Tuesday, Pools are eight points from safety.

A failure in both penalty areas in the next two games and Pools’ immediate future is all but secured.

Their last clean sheet on the road was at Accrington, a 0-0 draw on March 11 2014.

With Scott Fenwick injured – it says a lot that Pools are relying on a player who started the season in the Northern League – there’s no spark in the opposition box.

Marlon Harewood has been desperately poor since he signed last January, Marvin Morgan has contributed little and Ryan Bird has joined a team in dire straits.

“We have strikers, but no scorer. Everyone has seen it,’’ reflected Moore. “We look at Harewood and him and Morgan, the size of them, would have an understanding but it hasn’t worked.

“Morgan with Bird doesn’t seem to work, we’ve not get that natural scorer without Scotty and he could play with any of them.

“Getting to two big ones to get a combination out of them is hard.’’

Morgan has one goal to his Pools name so far, but has been on the bench of late following some insipid displays.

“When I went to Plymouth to watch Morgan play for their reserves and he scored, he was fantastic,,’ reflected Moore. “He really put himself about and we had to dive in and get him. I was made up – on the phone all the way home to the missus made up I’ve got a striker who can score.

“But right now, for whatever reason, he needs to produce what he is capable of doing and if he does that then we have a player and half a chance of someone else scoring without putting pressure on Scotty who will be another fortnight.

“So it’s important that one of them starts finding the net.’’

Moore put teenager Connor Smith in the side recently and he impressed with his effort and honesty up front.

He could start this afternoon: “Connor has pace, we have Franksy up there as an option yet and I’ve not see him there yet. We aren’t a million miles away from a decent team – with a striker who can score, we would probably have won on Saturday.

“We can play, defensively we are better, wingers at times are creating – but they can frustrate too – if we had 15-20 goals a season striker we would be competitive.

“Scotty saw the doctor this week and it’s all good, we hope he’s only got two more weeks before he can start kicking a ball again.

“There’s games to come before then and we need someone to come to the party sharpish.

“We’ve three natural strikers, Harewood, Morgan, Bird are all targetmen and Bird scored a lot of goals as non league level. But Scotty is missing and we need one of the three to get us ten goals and we have to get back to back wins.’’

Pools have been consistently poor away from home. A promising display at Tranmere, when they drew a game they should have won, aside, they’ve regularly lost.

“A clean sheet away from home for over a year is something we’ve not got and we need it now – back to back 1-0 wins would be a godsend for us,’’ said Moore.

“Is it possible? Course it is, but scoring is a problem.’’

"People say it evens itself out, does it hell. It might at the top but you make one mistake and this level and you're done.

"If you work hard enough you will get your break because of the work ethic you put in.’’