Craig Harrison no doubt left Meadow Park with plenty of concerns.

His Hartlepool United side were second best to a well organised, powerful Boreham Wide side, his team too often forced into long balls easily repelled by a resilient back three.

Though they created some good openings, the hosts had by far the better of the chances.

Portugese forward Bruno Andrade missed four clear openings, including one penalty early in the second half after Scott Harrison fouled Blair Turgott.

Harrison, however, was left with two clear reasons to retain plenty of faith in his promotion dream.

One was Scott Loach, outstanding again, a thorn in Andrade's side as dove to his left to save the spot-kick just two minutes into the second half.

He denied the former QPR man time and time again, even if the talented attacker was guilty of real profligacy in front of goal.

The other was a simply superb following that made up for over a third of the total attendance, roaring the side on incessantly as the visitors looked to leapfrog Luke Garratt's side in the table.

Harrison could not have praised either higher.

He said: "I’m not happy [with the point], that’s the minimum I would have wanted coming into the game, we got the clean sheet that we wanted. I want to win every football game, players want to win every football, so we’re disappointed we didn’t win. I’m adamant, though, that every point will count when it comes down to it.

"At the end there, we tried to win it, theoretically we’ve got four centre-forwards on the pitch at once, went 4-4-2 to try and win because I thought it was there for us. We got in good positions but didn’t take advantage of it.

"Scott has proved himself tenfold up until now, but you look at it and all the best teams, all the most successful teams, have a good goalkeeper. Going back to my era, how many points did Peter Schmeichel win Manchester United when they were so dominant? Once David Seaman left Arsenal it took them years, there was a big gap, they didn’t win anything.

"On and off the pitch he’s fantastic, a leader on it by example and off it the way he is with everyone. He’s been absolutely fantastic."

"We’ve got to make sure those fans get as many pats on the back and as much praise as they deserve because as much as we give it now they still deserve more. Travelling down to Torquay, Morecambe, here, it is absolutely unbelievable. When it comes down to the end of the season they will have won us 10-15 points through how supportive and loyal they are."

Pools did create some good openings, with Devante Rodney showing his pace and power on the right flank, but they could only muster two shots on target in an underwhelming attacking display.

To that end, the return of Jake Cassidy will come as a major boost.

After over two months out with a foot injury, the 24-year-old was back and picked up exactly where he left off, a physical and talented presence up front.

His excellent cross to the far post late in the game almost won it for the visitors, Rodney just unable to connect as he attacked from the wide area.

Despite their struggles in the game, the point extends Pools’ long unbeaten run in the league away from home and keeps momentum up following an outstanding October.

The key now for Harrison will be to back it up on home turf, with Aldershot and Halifax Town visiting Victoria Park in the next ten days.

Cassidy will be competing for a starting berth in those games and says there is every reason to believe his side can launch themselves into the promotion reckoning.

He said: “The support at the Vic is second to none, you can see teams come and they fear playing us, they sit back and think we’ve just got to adapt ourselves to playing against teams that want to do that. If we get three points and another positive result in the next home game then I think we’ll be right up there in the league.

“No one has really run away with it so far, you look in past years there’s always been one or two who have pretty much ran away with it at this point, but I’ve said to the lads in there that I think it suits us sort of chasing the pack, as long as we’re in and around there come Christmas then i think we’ve got enough quality to really kick on and stamp our authority on the league.”