Graeme Lee praises Hartlepool’s resilience following comeback win at Newport

Hartlepool manager Graeme Lee praised the resilience of his side after they bounced back from a midweek League Two defeat to Bradford to beat Newport 3-2 at Rodney Parade.

Omar Bogle’s own goal gave the hosts an early lead before Jamie Sterry and Luke Molyneux fired the visitors ahead. Robert Street equalised only for Neill Byrne to seal all three points for the visitors.

“It was a magnificent response from us,” said Lee. “It hurts us when we lose and the performance last time out was flat. We got a great response tonight.

“The work rate, the intensity and the effort was excellent. That’s what we are capable of.

“I’ve said it loads of times, when we’ve got this level of work rate and intensity then we can beat any side.

“We’ve come away to one of the top teams in the league and we’ve matched them. We’ve come away to one of the best sides in the league and won.

“It was a fantastic and entertaining game. We moved the ball very well and to get a response after we conceded goals was the most pleasing thing for me.

“It was an all-round fantastic performance.”

This was Newport’s first defeat in seven games but their manager James Rowberry insists they are still in a good place.

The Exiles are currently third on the table and look well placed to challenge for promotion.

“There were certain moments where our defence let us down,” said Rowberry.

“We needed to defend a little bit better as a collective, but we will learn from it. We’ll dust ourselves down and go again.

“We’ve had a good period of games where we’ve had some decent results and put ourselves in a very good position in the league.

“We’ve actually had a good return from the recent batch of games we’ve had.

“I’m really proud of them in how we’ve done over this period, but we’ve still got areas we need to improve on.”