HOURS after Mick Wadsworth vowed to make changes to his Hartlepool United side, James Poole put himself at the top of the manager's thoughts.

Pools produced their worst display of the season on Sunday, suffering their first away defeat of the campaign in losing 3-0 at Notts County.

Wadsworth's reaction was to plan alterations after sticking with the same side in recent weeks.

And yesterday, Poole netted four times in the reserve team's 5-0 win at Nottingham, with James Brown also on target.

Poole has started just once this season, but has three goals to his name for the first team.

Yesterday he scored a hat-trick within 30 minutes, his third a spectacular overhead kick, as Micky Barron's side coasted to victory.

With Nobby Solano suffering a hamstring strain at Meadow Lane and looking at a couple of weeks off duty, there is a spot available on the right wing.

Poole can play either through the middle or out wide and Wadsworth said: "Is it time for change? Yeah, for sure.

"We're not getting anything from various areas of the pitch. I'm not going to name names, that would be unfair, because it's been a collective cock-up.

"That's why we've got a squad and we've stuck with it.

"We've had a fairly settled rhythm the past few weeks but this is the one where we say ‘right, it's time to do something else now'.

"One, two, or three of them might be disappointed next week because they were in and now they're out.

"That's just the way it is and I haven't got a problem with that.

"That's better than we were last year when we had to stick with it because we didn't have a lot of support - we couldn't make many changes then, but now we can.''

Pools gave a lacklustre display on Sunday and, while they still have a healthy 19 points and sit ninth in League One, Wadsworth insists the disappointment won't linger.

"We never had the ball to create anything,'' he reflected. "We had a glorious chance early on with Sweeney and then with five minutes to go with Gary Liddle.

"If Lids scores it 2-1 and you've got a chance if that goes in and it sets you up for an exciting last five minutes.

"But from that they went and scored to make it 3-0.''

Sunday's game was televised live on Sky and Wadsworth admitted: "The TV thing isn't an issue really, it's a game of football we've lost regardless.

"But maybe now the radar will move away from Hartlepool a little bit and we can get back to working hard.

"There's been a lot of attention on us the past couple of weeks. I know you have to deal with that if you're doing well but it's nice to be able to get back under the radar and quietly become efficient again.

"We've got a good group and if we don't respond then they're not the characters I thought they were.

"We've got to take advantage of the next few weeks and pick up points to stay in the pack.

"If we can go into the last third of the season somewhere around the top seven or eight then we'll be very happy with that.''

Liddle took a boot to the face in the closing stages when he was caught by Neale Bishop, the former Spennymoor midfielder.

In August, Liddle suffered a fractured cheekbone, but will be fit for the weekend visit of Wycombe Wanderers.

"Lids is okay. He's got a face full of boot but there's nothing major, unless he's bust his nose but I think he'll be fine,'' he said.

"We've let a lot of people down, particularly our supporters and ourselves as well. It was poor, throughout the team.''