THERE’S been no sign of a hangover at Victoria Park this summer; all the talk and actions have been positive as Hartlepool United start life in the National League.

But when the talking stopped and the action started there was plenty of feeling that little had changed.

Pools lost at home, failed to stamp their authority on the game, failed to trouble the opposition goalkeeper, and everyone left feeling a little deflated.

Add an isolated Padraig Amond up front on his own and there was a feeling of deja-vu.

The visitors, fair play to Dover, showed what National League football can be all about and what Pools can expect to come up against: big, strong, direct, defensive, organised opposition.

Pools never got going in the first-half and fair play to boss Craig Harrison for being willing to change formation and players to try and engineer improvement.

They did look better second-half, as they pitched up with two strikers in a 4-4-2 set-up.

Still, however, they didn’t create enough or, in the main, look like scoring.

“We play Tuesday, we want it to come back,’’ reflected Harrison. “The last thing is to go a while without a game and we won’t be negative.

“We make sure this is gone, we look why this result happened and I’m never one for being too emotional after games, we will look back it and break it down and see where we will be better.

“We will get a solution from watching it back and seeing what we can do better.

“The second-half was better, it’s always harsh on two lads who go off, but we needed a change tactically and get the ball more into wide areas.

“I felt we needed to be a bit braver and go 4-4-2 to occupy their back two and we did reasonably well second half. We weren’t as good as we were in pre-season, but we look again.

“The crowd were disappointed, but they were brilliant. They know the staff and players are just as disappointed. We wanted to come in and win asap and get that momentum rolling, but it hasn’t been.’’

With two away games in the next five days, Macclesfield tomorrow and Maidenhead on Saturday, Pools need a positive outcome.

A new team may take some time to gel and pre-season showed they can be a decent side.

Their big question, just like 12 months ago, is formation and how to get the best out of Amond. He needs to play off someone, that’s how he got so many goals for Grimsby in this division.

A 4-3-3 set-up leaves him alone in the middle and, on Saturday, up against three big centre-halves he spent most of his time looking for scraps.

The only goal was a sloppy one. Pools cleared a corner and pushed out, but they didn’t go up in an Arsenal-esque straight line. Scott Harrison was deeper and he played the Dover forwards onside.

Jamie Allen, who caused stand-in left-back Liam Donnelly problems with his pace, was able to turn and angle his finish past Scott Loach.

Pools fans have been slugged over the head with a hammer too many times over the years. This is a fresh start, but the feeling at half-time was one of despair and bewilderment.

There was an improvement thanks to the changes, but Dover were a tough nut to crack.

Pools weren’t helped by assistant referees scared of making a decision and the referee could have awarded a penalty when Amond was bundled over in the area towards the end.

But they didn’t lose because of the officials, rather than it was a slow start to the season.

Harrison said: “Do I find out more about the players today? Not really, we learn all the time, that’s important and to learn from mistakes is vital – myself, staff, players.

“Overall we weren’t at the races for whatever reason when we had possession. They worked hard, put a shift in, but we could have dominated possession quicker than we did.

“We changed at half-time, a couple of players and formation. First-half after 20 minutes we could have settled and dominated the ball a little more.

“It’s first game, you don’t want to lose any game – I hate getting beat.’’