That is the hope and belief of head coach Pete Wild – the man owner Landon Smith chose to revive the fortunes of Pools.
Given the summer spending spree and the level of pre-season optimism, it beggars belief that the town’s newspaper is using such language about the town’s club.
Pools are in danger of leaving English football’s fifth division by the wrong exit, not grave danger, but the threat is clearly there.
While performances in back-to-back away defeats at Fylde (3-1) and Boreham Wood (4-3) have brought promise, they have yielded no points, so Pools go into the FA Cup break back in the bottom four – three points from safety.
There are 90 points to play for and Pools might need as many as 38 or 39 from the remaining 30 games to retain their status.
Given the squad have, thus far, collected only 15 from a possible 48, you do not have to be a Carol Vorderman or Rachel Riley to know that the numbers are not good.
Only 43 points were needed last term to stay up, but in the previous seasons, 50 and 53 (twice) were required.
When Wild blurted out his frustrations for all to see and hear after the humiliation of another premature FA Cup exit, he spoke of Pools needing “a complete refurb of a job”.
Even after he said it, he knew major surgery was never a genuine proposition.
The 42-year-old is well aware that the current squad is not good enough, but to bring in better players he must move men out, which is easier said than done.
So, until he can do that, his priority is to entice and inspire more from the players who have under performed in the opening third of the programme.
“It’s all evolution,” Wilds told Life.
“Personally, I think revolution gets you the sack.
“There are probably a million different case studies across the country of revolution.
“Revolution also means that you can’t change 10 or 12 players.
“Evolution means getting more out of the players we’ve got.
“Again, patience is required. As much as fans don’t want to hear the word patience, I can only do what I can do with the people I’ve got.
“So I think it’s about incremental gains and trying to find a way.
“Yes, after Marine, I was frustrated and would love revolution, but it ain’t going to happen, is it?
“So you’ve got to try to find the small gains that I can get. I’m trying to do that with shuffling the pack.
“I’m trying to do that with getting them to work harder because if you work harder in the National League, you generally have a chance of winning.”
He added: “If we keep moving in the right direction, if we keep playing like Tuesday night and Saturday, we’ll win more than we lose.
“Are the processes getting better? Yes. Are the players trying to do our processes? Yes. Right, we’ll be fine then.
There are genuine signs of encouragement for Wild.
Pools led at Fylde for over 70 minutes before conceding three late goals, and transformed a 2-0 interval deficit to go 3-2 up at Boreham Wood before the leaders struck twice at the death.
“I think we are moving in the right direction,” said Wild, whose side are next in action at home to Wealdstone a week on Saturday. “The team is harder to play against and they are working harder for the football club which is the number one for every Pools fan.
“We’ve got to lay the foundations before we can start to see the fruits of our labour and I think we’ve done that last month.
“I believe the lads are buying in to what we’ve asked them to do. I can see that on the training ground and I can see that on the pitch.
“We’ve just got to keep moving in the right direction.”
Author: Roy
Author of Sports Life and all sports articles.