DAVE CHALLINOR feels his Hartlepool United plans are coming together.

The Pools boss takes his side to Barnet today, sitting three points from the play-offs, and with some momentum and positivity about the place.

Pools are four games unbeaten; not something to shout about but if they can extend that today and maintain their performance level then the outlook will be further improved.

Two players left on loan yesterday. Niko Muir went to Hampton and Richmond and Jason Kennedy to Spennymoor and it would be a surprise to see either in a Pools shirt again.

Challinor is getting his own players in, with striker Rob Harker the latest on loan from Burnley.

After the impressive debut last weekend of Macauley Southam-Hailes and Tim Odusina slotting in at centre-half alongside Gary Liddle, the team is fast becoming a Challinor team.

He admits he has changed his philosophy. There’s more expectations at Pools than he had at Fylde and the manager has altered his look to embrace that pressure.

“In terms of how I’d envisaged we’d play and how I’d like us to play, I’ve had to adapt that a little bit,’’ he admitted.

“The way I did things at my previous club was very, very possession based.

“With the fans we’ve got here, they still want to be entertained, they want action.

“I’m happy to adapt to that.

“You have a philosophy you want to play towards but you also have to recognise what the desire here is.

“We’d be stupid having a 4,000 crowd here and not keep them in the game by being forward thinking and getting the ball in the box or getting our attacking players on the ball as much as possible.

“We’re going to try to do that.

“If we can get to 3-0 on a Saturday and we start to try to keep the ball and not play it forward and the crowd start shouting then I’ll accept it.”

Pools were deserving winners over Stockport last weekend, as they strolled to victory. Today’s opposition, unbeaten since the end of November, will provide a sterner test.

But, back to back away draws before last weekend, have given them a solid platform and Challinor admitted: “I want us to build on what we’ve done.

“The players have shown a lot of character in terms of not getting disappointed from matches we probably should have won.

“The way football is, you’ll always look back at the end of the season and say ‘we could have had another two points here and there’ but you can’t do that.

“You’ve got to try to learn and move on.

“We are still a work in progress but what we’ve got to do is have more belief.

“The way this league is, every team has a chance – the division is that wide open.

“If you work hard during the week and then do the basics well on a Saturday then you have a very good chance of winning the game.

“You win in this division and that can change the outlook of the league very quickly.”