HARTLEPOOL United’s new manager Dave Challinor got off to the perfect start on Tuesday, now he is out to build on it.

After arriving back from their 4-1 FA Cup win at Yeovil in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Pools’ players were in training today.

While they stayed away from their regular base at Peterlee College to protect the pitches following the heavy rains of late, the squad trained on a 3G pitch at Brierton Sports Complex in the town.

And Challinor admitted ahead of Saturday’s game at Ebbsfleet: “It’s been a busy week, and it was a big ask in terms of travelling, but the results makes it better.

“The lads were off on Wednesday, but we train today and have a bright session, then travel Friday before a tough game.

“Football moves on quickly and Tuesday has gone now, but we take a lot of confidence from it and hope to get winning in the league.

“We couldn’t ask for more on Tuesday, it was a great start. We all want to win games, first game or the tenth and those in between.

“We put little things in place and they expressed themselves positively and could have had more at a tough place to go.

“Now it’s the next round and another long journey, but winning breeds confidence and hopefully it helps us, as outsiders coming in as such, get the message across.

“As will be the case, they take the plaudits and the staff here keeping things ticking over in times of change have a lot to do with that and they have a lot of credit for what we did on Tuesday.’’

He added: “It’s been a busy start and if you can come through this things which are meant to test you it can only be a good things. We are on a different surface to make a conscious decision to protect the pitches there and give them a week which will give them a chance to recover.

“We are looking forward to a bright session, to get together and show some new ideas how training will be carried out and it’s all geared towards the weekend.’’