DAVE JONES admits he’s been pleasantly surprised by the ability of his Hartlepool United players.

With his appointment as Pools boss last month, Jones dipped into the bottom division for the first time after managing in the Championship and Premier League.

And, as Pools go to Colchester tomorrow seeking victory to lift them away from the bottom two positions in League Two, Jones feels he has seen enough to be impressed.

“League Two has surprised me a bit, but you always get surprises along the line. The players are very good technically and I wasn’t expecting that to be honest,’’ he said of the squad he inherited from Craig Hignett.

“But I was surprised they weren’t as strong as I expected. But with training and conditioning work we are trying to do we have seen changes and an improvement in all departments.

“With so many young players you have to go over the same things two or three times, but that’s what we are here for – to educate and improve the players.

“There’s been a response and I think they are enjoying it too, it’s all well and good me saying it, but they are buying into it.’’

Pools’ away form is poor, with their last win on the road coming at Grimsby on October 1.

After a woeful defeat Newport in Jones’ first away game in charge, their performance did improve at Luton last time out - albeit suffering a 3-0 defeat.

Jones is confident the changes he is implementing are paying off.

He said: “We go away again and we did well later on at Luton, although we lost after a poor start. But we showed the lads the video from Saturday’s game and we showed them the videos from previous games and you can see the way we are doing things different and better

“That’s good as it shows they are listening and wanting to do well. Winning on Saturday would be nice.

“Colchester are in the play-off mix and everyone has something to play for. It could be positional in the table, it could be individual – contracts and the like. Every player will go right to the end, they have to perform. There’s only two ways to do well – play well to move on or play well to stay in the team.’’

Skipper Billy Paynter yesterday had an injection in the hope that his season isn’t over.

The striker is suffering a troublesome Achilles problem and Pools hope an injection will see him return to action.

Liam Donnelly and Carl Magnay both took part in training yesterday. Donnelly (ankle) has missed the last two games, but will return tomorrow. Magnay suffered a knee ligament injury in August.

"Liam been training with us and Mags is joining in with some technical work, he's on the mend which is good,’’ said Jones at this morning’s press conference.

"Billy is having an injection in Liverpool and we'll see what reaction he has to that, rather than him having an operation.

"If we can get our senior players back that will help.’’

Sean Kavanagh is a doubt for tomorrow with a hamstring strain

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