NATHAN RALPH has admitted that it felt like a defeat despite Woking coming from behind to draw 1-1 with Hartlepool United at the Laithwaite’s Community Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Ryan Donaldson gave the Pools a 26th minute lead, nodding in Jonathan Franks’ miscued shot at the far post, before Jamie Philpot levelled with his second in as many games on the stroke of half-time.
Devante Rodney then hit the post for the visitors before Inih Effiong smashed the crossbar with almost the last kick of the game, but Ralph was disappointed with the outcome of the game.
He told Woking FC TV: “The way the second half went it felt a bit like a defeat, but we’ve got another point on the board and if we can go to Chester in the week and get the three points that’s four in two so we cant really complain and we’re still unbeaten in a few games.”
Hartlepool controlled the opening exchanges, but Woking dominated the second half, something the Woking full-back sees as an emerging pattern in the opening quarter of this National League season.
“We were a bit cagey in the first half and like I lot of games we come into our own in the second half. Once they scored their goal they dropped off a bit and gave us a bit of respect in terms of passing the ball and we made the most of that but didn’t get that second goal.”
“Coming into our own in the second half is down to what we’ve been doing in training and due to our fitness whereas other teams might not be able to do that but we couldn’t quite get the goal.”
Hartlepool were relegated from League Two last season, and have struggled so far this season, but have secured wins over Maidstone, Leyton Orient and Dagenham and Redbridge.
Craig Harrison’s side are currently 18th in the table, but have a host of former Football League players in their ranks, which didn’t intimidate the Woking left-back.
He said: “They’re a big team they’ve got some experienced players but we don’t really let that phase us, we know what we’re good at and we’re confident we can beat any team in this league on our day.”
“Over the course of the game we felt like we were the better team but they definitely had passages where they were difficult to come up against but we’re confident we can win each game that we go into and the wins will come.”