WITH POINTS being lost left, right and centre and games thrown away amid a cacophony of rank bad refereeing decisions, Craig Hignett hopes his players can rally round.

They say spirit comes from adversity and there’s a feeling around Hartlepool United that all is conspiring against them.

Perhaps Sunday’s FA Cup tie at home to Stamford should bring about that first win at The Northern Gas and Power Stadium of the season.

And, with a League Two game to follow at home to Cheltenham, Hignett wants his side to unite.

Their latest issue with officialdom came when the appeal against the red card issued to Liam Donnelly last weekend was dismissed out of hand by the FA.

That coming after the club was given indication that they had a cast-iron case for an appeal, and after the referee last weekend admitted the error of his ways to a Pools player seconds after issuing a red card.

Donnelly misses Sunday’s game. Hignett said: “It’s frustrating, but we have to try and forget it. I don’t want to moan week in, week out, but the things we are moaning about are key decisions, game-changing decisions.

“They can’t give us the points back or the suspended players back, but at the minute it’s tough to deal with.

“In a way that can act as a positive – siege mentality, we come together and get on with it and show it doesn’t matter that decisions can do against us.

“It’s got to the stage now where everyone is talking about it. Not one when it’s a one-off, but it’s affected games too much. The lads here are talking about it, the press arte talking about it, but let’s go on with it now.’’

The red card proved decisive at Barnet, as Pools led before losing 3-2 with ten men.

“Without the red card we were cruising and it was going to take something like that to change the course of the game,’’ mused Hignett.

“He gets sent-off, a penalty and it’s backs to the wall.

“The appeal went in and it was rejected. The new rule states you can’t be sent off if you make a genuine attempt to play the ball.

“It’s clear for all to see that Liam makes a genuine attempts to play the ball, his foot goes in the direction of the ball, he’s at the same height as the ball and he’s inches away from the ball.

“He tries to get it. We aren’t even asking for an interpretation of the rule. It’s a rule that’s there in black and white.

“Look at the video, there’s a genuine attempt. How it can be rejected I don’t know. I would like to see the written reasons why.’’

He added: “It’s difficult to understand, really difficult, because decisions have cost us 10 points this season. Listen, we are guilty as well, I’m not hiding that. We have thrown away 20 points this season, so there’s a lot down to us too.

“We have had feedback which says they will look at things and make sure mistakes won’t happen again, but it’s happened again, and it’s happened again and it’s happened again.’’

Pools’ reserves yesterday beat Swansea City 2-1 in a friendly at St George’s Park with goals from Brad Walker and Rhys Oates.