ONE DEFEAT in nine this season, but Matthew Bates knows there still a lot more to come from his Hartlepool United side.

Pools were a little disappointed to only draw with Barrow at home on Tuesday evening, but they moved up into sixth in the National League table.

They go to Solihill on Saturday with confidence in the camp high amid a promising opening to the season.

And Bates, while happy with the start and level of performance, will wait before setting his players targets or taking real note of the league table.

“We still can get better, we want to get better and it’s still a new group of players and we are improving and we need consistency,’’ he said. “We got a point at home, which we wanted to be three. But I made a point in the dressing room afterwards that it’s only one defeat in nine.

“Keep up that level of consistency over a season and you are going to be up there after losing, what only five games. But there’s a long, long way to go – busy schedules ahead at times and we have to be ready and keep going.

“Everyone in this league knows what sort of results can come and teams will look at us and see we have only lost one in nine. There’s a lot of good teams. I won’t really properly look at the table until 20-25 games to say we need so many points more, so many wins.

“We will work hard and we won’t get carried away and we have players who know this division and what it is all about.’’

While previous boss Craig Harrison had clear monthly targets for his players to achieve, they failed to match them as the club crumbled.

For Bates, however, it’s a different outlook: “There’s no month by month target, it’s all well and good setting them but then what happens if you don’t meet them? I take it week by week and ask if we can get six / nine points from the week ahead. It’s game by game.

“I pick the side, I coach them with Ged McNamee and they understand what they need to do to get better. I want to be in and around the play-offs with the last five / ten games of the season.’’

Luke Williams will train with the first-team squad today with the hope of being involved at the weekend. He has not played in the two weeks since his signed after a bout of tonsillitis and missing training.