GARETH Ainsworth was satisfied at a professional job by Wanderers as they beat basement boys Hartlepool United – but said his men had to make sure things went their way.

The final result of 3-1 in Wanderers’ favour was what most people would have expected pre-match in the battle of top versus bottom, but Pools will feel hard done by at the final scoreline.

Had Neil Austin not fluffed a first half penalty, passing up the opportunity to bring United level, it could have been a different story.

Ainsworth’s side had had to repel a sustained spell of attacking pressure from their hosts in the opening stages, with supporters responding to experienced striker Marlon Harewood geeing them up when Pools won a succession of early corners.

They were silenced by Paris Cowan-Hall’s second goal in two games, and although that came later than Ainsworth would have liked, the Blues boss said his intention from the start was to get the home fans on the players’ backs.

He said: “We made it go our way, especially in the second half. I had a few choice words at half time and we put it right.

“When you’re down the bottom the fans can turn; confidence, everything seems to be going against you. We wanted to give Hartlepool that feeling, as horrible as that sounds. We wanted to come down on them hard right from the start, and we did. They showed some fight.

“We have to respect this club no matter where they are in the league. We’ve been there [at the bottom of the table] and turned over the top of the league teams. We knew this was a potential banana skin, if you’ll excuse the cliché.

“Second half we did a fantastic professional job. We’ve played better than this and won more convincingly, but this was a professional job. The timings of the goals were crucial and they were taken very well."

Ainsworth said preparation to the game was key – even if it meant arriving slightly later than he would have liked.

He said: “People will look at it and say it was an easy game – it wasn’t; far from it. Sooner or later they will get a team together that starts winning. I’m just glad it wasn’t against us today.

“We had a meeting at the hotel that went on a little bit long – we were a little bit late here. I wanted to get the point across about being complacent and how we are going to do the job.”

The Blues boss added he had no complaints over the potentially pivotal penalty, awarded for a foul on Harewood by Joe Jacobson as the former Premier League striker was heading away from goal.

He said: “I thought it was a penalty. JJ has no reason to dive in. It was similar to Oxford, it’s gone in our favour. When you’re winning and playing well, things do go in your favour.

“Matt Ingram is a very imposing figure in that goal. He’s a big lad and that must be in the mind of the penalty taker. He’s gone for the blast and luckily for us it’s gone over the bar.”