Stephen Crainey feels Pool were rewarded for their efforts on Saturday, when debutant Paul Dickov struck with a minute of normal time remaining in a 2-1 win over Leicester City.

It meant that the Seasiders picked up their first three points since New Years Day, in a game that Craines admits was slightly dictated by the weather conditions.

"It wasn't the prettiest game, obviously you could see that with the conditions," said Crainey. "There was a bit of a gale out there, but the boys dug in and we got the goal at the end and I think we deserved to get the three points.

I think they had one shot on goal and that was their goal, so I think we deserved the three points overall.

"It wasn't pretty but we got the goals at the right time. It was a good start with Fletch scoring a great goal, then Dickie came on and got the goal in the last minute which gave the boys a good lift.

"Hopefully we can carry that on to this week's game with Hull and build on it now," he added.

For Crainey, it capped off a good performance in which he was involved in the play that led to both Pool goals. It was his cross-field ball that sent Gary Taylor-Fletcher through for the first and his free-kick that was nodded into the box by Kaspars Gorkss for Paul Dickov to hit the winner.

Craines says he was happy with his performance and the teams as a whole, considering the strong winds: "I like to get the ball down and pass it but it wasn't the conditions so sometimes we had to play a bit ugly and try and hit Ben a bit direct but sometimes you need to adjust to be able to do things.

"The boys are quite happy and I'm just glad we dug in and got the three points," he added.

After watching debutant Paul Dickov come off the bench in the game, in an impressive 20-minute spell that included the winner, Crainey revealed he is delighted to see him at Bloomfield Road.

"He's a great lad, he's got bags of experience and he's a Scottish international as well. He'll come in and do a good job for us, as all the other strikers will at the club," he said.

As well as Dickov, the arrival of Stuart Green will increase competition for places and the left-back feels that is a good problem to have: "He trained on Friday and he looks a good player," he said.

"There's a good bunch of boys here and I'm sure it won't take them long to settle in. It's a good problem for the manager to have, to have a big squad and plenty of players to pick from."