THREE GAMES remaining, three games to save their Football League status and Dave Jones wants a United Hartlepool.

Pools fumbled their way to defeat at Leyton Orient, amid an embarrassing display against the bottom club.

But as Pools take on Barnet at home today, Jones wants all negative talk banished.

Jones is not the sort of manager to hang his players out to dry, it’s a collective responsibility he wants instilling at the club.

Admission has been reduced to £10 and £5 today to try and recreate the atmosphere and feeling generated both two and three years ago when Pools managed to stave off the threat of the drop at a passionate Victoria Park.

The manager said: "It's about the collective, the team it's about staying strong, not having loose cannons or a blame culture.

"No one thing is to blame, we are all in it together.

"We an opportunity and we have to take it, not blame past regimes, past this, past that, it's about the now.

"Just get on with it, don't get bogged down with what's gone before.’’

Pools have not had much of a lift under their new manager, as the continue to stutter. Jones regularly talks of the need and desire to change the culture around the club, but all that matters is the next three games for now.

"We've been here for 17 games, I think we are one point and four goals better off,’’ he reflected. "It's changing ever so slightly, just one point, but it doesn't mean a thing because we are still around it.

"We have to change the mentality.

"The supporters are fantastic because they keep coming and eventually they will see a change.

"The only way you can change it in a flash is to clear the whole place out.

"Or do you change within the environment, that is what you are trying to do, trying to build.

"Some games players respond, other games they don't.

"The expectation levels have risen, that's why I have been employed.

"If you want to stay where you are you keep employing the same people who have done it before or whatever.

"It is frustrating at the moment, for me, the players, the people inside the club, the fans.’’

Pools sit a point in front of Newport who take on in-form Accrington today, and Jones said of his squad: "They fought and scrapped for that point against Carlisle, throwing their bodies on the line.

"But on Monday… we start well, score a goal but then what happens?

"It's like someone opening a window and everything is thrown out. One of my old managers said it's like catching a butterfly, if you want to keep it you don't open your hands.

"Football's the same, you have to keep tight hold of what you've got.’’

The pressure is intensifying on Pools, but Jones wants his players to remain in control of their emotions and, in turn, destiny.

He admitted: “Newport won a few and it puts pressure on. I’ve been in the situation at the other end of the table in trying to win things and the pressure is the same there.

“You have to play sport, and in this case football, to be under pressure or the adrenaline doesn’t kick in. There’s always a competitiveness, a pressure, something at stake. It’s about embracing that pressure, then the adrenaline kicks in, your brain kicks in and you embrace that pressure.

“You are then in control. If you fear it, then the adrenaline doesn't kick in and you aren’t in control of it.

“We are third bottom, we maybe expected to be in the scrap now when we arrived, but we are actually better off than we were by a point, with four goals more.

“It’s about trying to change something going on for a few years now. Speak to the players here and we have to change it.

“We need the help of everyone associated with the club. It’s how you respond to knock backs and kicks and experiences, the more experiences you have the more it rubs off. It’s a learning process and are we confident? Of course. Are they disappointed? Of course they are, everyone is as we let everyone down on Monday.

“But everyone expected it to be a win and sometimes expectation levels can take over. I think when we scored it was an expectation we had to win – normally they are chasing something.

“They are all the questions you ask and we are trying to find out, but how long does it take to find out things? It doesn’t happen overnight.

“They are a willing bunch who want to do well and no-one wants to be in this situation, but we have to keep our heads above it and we are there now.

“The only way to do it is to fight for your lives and that’s the message we have got across.’’