"The most dominant we've been all season" - Matt Taylor speaks after draw at Hartlepool

Micah Obiero put the Stones ahead just before the break, but a 98th minute equaliser from Emmanuel Dieseruvwe sank the hearts of Stones fans after an all-round fantastic performance from Taylor's side at the Suit Direct Stadium.

“When you consider the games that we’ve had at the start of this season, and consider how well the lads have played for the majority of those games, Today was very similar again,” Said Taylor.

“First-half we were excellent, the most dominant we’ve been all season, but only scored one goal. When you’re on top in football games you have to capitalise. We scored a great goal through Micah (Obiero), who was playing out of position."

“We totally controlled every aspect of it. When you go away to a team like Hartlepool, who are undoubtedly one of the bigger clubs in our League, and you make them make two substitutions and change their shape at half time, that tells you you’re doing something right. Even in the second-half we weren’t hanging on, there was probably an incident where we should’ve had a penalty, but we weren’t.”

“We were left to rue our missed chances earlier in the game, but we should’ve been out of sight and the defence was excellent. They were unfortunate with the ball bouncing around (for Dieseruvwe’s goal) but we were told there would only be seven minutes of added time and there was more.”

It's been a tough start to the season so far for the Stones, not helped by the injuries to key players, such as Sean Adarkwa, Sam Ashford, Jaydn Mundle-Smith, Craig Eastmond and Mason Barrett.

“It’s very well known that we have a lot of injuries, we picked up another one in training yesterday, Deon Woodman fractured his nose and broke his cheekbone, and is suffering from concussion. We’ve not had a huge amount of luck but the players stuck together for the first 45 minutes of the game.”

The point on the road was the first picked up by the Stones this season, having faced defeat to Dagenham & Redbridge, Oldham Athletic and Sutton United, but the performances have warranted more that what has been picked up so far.

“I can’t sit here and talk to you in any other way than being proud of the players. We’re just not getting what we deserve and we probably need a slice of luck. We’ve only got one point so far but we’ve been excellent. Ironically if you’d have asked any Wealdstone fan they’d say before the game that they’d have been happy with a point, but that doesn’t make it an easier pill to swallow. Nothing’s won and lost after one game of the season.”

Taylor made three changes to the side and changed the system to the team that faced Sutton United. Obiero started the game as a striker, as opposed to his familiar position on the wing and Enzio Boldewijn started the game as a no.10.

“We’ve had to put players in positions they’re probably not familiar with but they’ve performed exceptionally well. We’ve had to find a way of playing for the players we have available and a game plan, which we’ve obviously got right. Has it been difficult navigating six players out injured? Yes it has. But what you see is that it’s united the players. We have 17 available players and we have to pick a team.”

“I’m not going to use it as an excuse, because there’s other teams up and down the country with injuries, probably not as many as us, especially to key members of the group. If we play like we did today, we’ll win plenty of games this season, I have no concern about that.”

It's a quick turnaround for the Stones, who face 17th placed AFC Fylde in a bank holiday fixture at Grosvenor Vale on Monday at 15:00pm. Tickets are available here.

“There’s a lot of time and effort that goes into preparing the team for battle. But it’s about us. It’s no disrespect to the opposition (AFC Fylde).”

“The players will be given information about Fylde of course, but not until Monday, which is a ridiculously quick turnaround. How on earth we’re meant to cope with it I don’t know and I’m not just speaking for our football club but a lot of other football clubs at this level."