Monday 13 August 2012 12:44, UK
Skipper Sam Collins has apologised to the club's fans for Hartlepool's poor display in their Capital One Cup defeat at Crewe.
Pools manager Neale Cooper was furious after seeing his side slump 5-0 in their first-round clash at newly-promoted Crewe on Saturday. "[The fans] were brilliant," said Collins. "I think they came here expecting more as well. All we can do is apologise and put it right next week and that is what we have got to do." Pools take on another newly-promoted side, Swindon, at Victoria Park in their opening League One game on Saturday. Collins added: "We still have things we need to work on and hopefully this will give us all a kick up the backside, maybe we're not as good as we thought we were - not that we were getting carried away. "We've got to be ready for the next game, we have to learn from what went wrong and bounce back. It's hard for the gaffer after that, but we know we just have to cut out the mistakes. There are lots of things we need to put right for next Saturday."