Daryl McMahon saw his side bag three points after two near misses in their previous games and he was pleased with the contribution from front to back and off the bench.
“I thought it was a terrific performance from the lot of them,” he told BBC Radio Kent’s Tom Hill. “I’m delighted for Jack Powell, it was his 100th game for us today, Shieldsy was excellent and Cheek coming on with Corey who had a big impact as well.
“Whitely’s a top player at this level, he’s got two in two for us coming off the bench. Michael Cheek had a big impact again today when he came on. We’ve got a decent squad and people fighting for places and I think you see that today.”
McMahon saw his side continue to press the ball and enjoy possession as they had done against both Chesterfield and Leyton Orient but this time the reward came earlier. “I thought we deserved it,” he said. “We dominated the ball for a lot of the game. It was a good goal and we probably could have nicked a couple more after that as well. It’s a difficult place to come [against] a good side, a big club in this division.I spoke to some of their fans walking out and they said we totally deserved it which I thought we did. Now we have to build on what we’ve done today.”
Hartlepool enjoyed the better of the chances in a lively first half but the Fleet boss felt his defenders had that largely under control and stepped up in the second half to use the ball better.
“We said on the bench there was a lot of balls going straight into their strikers and that as long we deal with the first ball up and deal with the second ball, we’d be OK,” McMahon revealed. “I thought the defenders and midfield players did really well. I thought we could have moved it slightly quicker in the first half, I thought we had a lot of the ball but didn’t actually turn it into enough opportunities against their goal and we just had to be better like that, a little bit sharper, move it a little bit quicker which I thought we did in the second half. I thought the subs coming on had a big impact on the game.”
Listen to interview below.
