NICKY DEVERDICS may have brought Victoria Park to its feet on Tuesday – but the dead ball specialist left with regrets.

Pools drew 1-1 with Tranmere Rovers, pegged back within minutes of taking the lead through Deverdics’ majestic free-kick from distance.

It was their second 1-1 draw at home in a matter of days and Pools could easily have had six.

Instead they go to face Torquay on Saturday still looking at the play-off zone from outside.

“I think we played the better stuff for 60 minutes, but then their goal is a sucker punch. They then had a very good chance at the end to nick it,’’ admitted Deverdics.

“When you get away with that, you hold your hand up and say a draw is just about fair.”

“It keeps the unbeaten run going. But we’ve all said in the changing room after the game that we need to start picking up three points.

“One point, one point, one point isn’t going to get us anywhere. We have taken two points from six and we need to start picking up wins if we want to be in the play-offs.

“It’s a long season, but we need to cement our place. “OK, if we creep into the play-offs at the last minute, it doesn’t matter, but we need to start getting in amongst those positions.”

Deverdics gave Pools the lead with a free-kick from around 30 yards cracked into the top corner.

Two weeks after scoring from a few yards shorter at South Shields, the stand-in left-back is finally showing his prowess after a frustrating first campaign at the club.

“I wasn’t always going to shoot, Nicky Featherstone made a run down the right – they were setting up their wall and didn’t spot him,’’ he recalled.

“The ref told me to wait for the whistle, so I said to him that I couldn’t give it to him.

“Once I stopped and had a look, I just assessed the distance, I said to Feath ‘shall I just hit it?’

“It was a similar distance to the one I got at South Shields. I thought with the conditions, even if I hit the target and the keeper parries it, the lads might have a chance of knocking it in. Luckily it’s gone in the top corner.’’

Boss Craig Harrison admitted it was two points dropped, a verdict backed up by the scorer.

“We had good first-half chances,’’ he said. “Rhys Oates connected too well and it goes to the keeper to save his header. I was really pleased first-half how we put them on the back foot and the keeper made four good first-half saves.

“You would like to think we have done enough to win, but we haven’t won. The last ten minutes we ran out of steam a bit.

“It was a concern Saturday that we didn’t create as many chances, but the amount of chances, possession, territory and chances – we had more tonight than three games.’’

Pools have Devante Rodney suspended for Saturday after the attacker picked up his fifth booking of the season on Tuesday.

Carl Magnay is also a big doubt. The right-back and captain has been suffering from a hernia problem in recent weeks and is pencilled in for surgery next week, which would keep him out for around six weeks.