Woking are second from bottom of the National League following a 1-0 defeat away to mid-table Hartlepool United.

The hosts had lost three league games in a row prior to the Cards’ trip to Victoria Park, but Chris Popov’s first goal for Pools earned them the points.

Woking threatened early on and Will Harris had to clear Chinwike Okoli’s header off the line after seven minutes.

Hartlepool then came into the game and club captain Jack Hunter flashed a header wide of the bottom right corner on 12 minutes. Ten minutes later Brooklyn Ilunga steered an effort narrowly off target.

On the half-hour Harris latched on to a pinpoint Jack Nolan cross but could not get enough power on his attempt to beat Woking keeper Will Jaaskelainen.

Pools continued to probe and in the 39th minute Popov’s strike deflected inches wide of the bottom left corner. Then Popov picked out Harris in the box but he headed just wide.

The pattern of play did not change after the interval and straight from the restart Harris released Popov on goal, but his strike towards the near corner was saved by Jaaskelainen.

Minutes later Popov pounced on Zico Asare’s slip, but Jaaskelainen advanced quickly to deny him in a one-on-one situation.

But a Hartlepool goal finally arrived in the 57th minute when Ilunga’s cross was guided by Harris into the path of Popov and he tapped it home.

Woking woke up after that and seemed to have equalised in the 78th minute when new striker John Marquis chopped inside the box and fired at goal from close range, but Neo Eccleston brilliantly cleared the ball off the line.

As Woking pushed for a point, substitute goalkeeper Nathan Fisher made a huge save to deny Marquis in injury time.

Woking interim co-manager Craig Ross said: “I thought for the first 60 minutes we were poor. We knew we had to win our individual battles - that was going to be a big key for us today - and we didn’t do that enough all over the pitch.

“We caused ourselves problems. We tried to change shape halfway through the first half just to see us through to half-time, and then we changed again at half-time. It didn’t feel like we had any sort of control in that first 60 minutes.”

Ross felt that Woking’s performance was transformed after Popov scored for Hartlepool.

He said: “The reaction after it was brilliant. But I just said to the lads, we can’t keep waiting for a poor half of football or to go a goal behind to click into gear and start playing as we should. We’re giving ourselves too much to do.

“But on the flip side of that, in the last half an hour I couldn’t have asked for much more. It was everything we wanted from the team. We pressed well, we were aggressive, we nicked things back. We looked dangerous on the break and we should have scored.

“The only thing you can put it down to is it’s maybe easy to start playing when you’re behind and you’ve got something to chase rather than something to protect or go after.”

By Jonathan Hurst