NICKY FEATHERSTONE admits it is 'hard not to panic' after Pool's preparations for their return to the Football League suffered another blow as they lost 4-1 to Gateshead on Saturday.

The defeat at Gateshead's International Stadium means Dave Challinor's side have suffered two losses to National League North opposition in the space of a week after they also went down 1-0 to Spennymoor last Tuesday.

The defeats are hardly ideal preparation ahead of Pools' League Two season opener against Crawley Town on August 7.

Featherstone said: "It’s hard not to panic a little bit after the last two results, although I’ve had bad pre-seasons before and generally they don’t tend to have much say on the season.

"Losing any game is disappointing, the way we lost this one is even more disappointing. We could go through all four of their goals and pretty much three of the four came about after we were in good possession of the ball and then one pass puts them through.

"It’s something to work on after a couple of disappointing results and performances."