Northampton Town took their renewed confidence with them on the road on Saturday as they journeyed north to face a Hartlepool United side steadily improving after a slow start to the season under new manager Colin Cooper.
As is often the case prior to a Northampton fixture the talk was of how the opposition would cope with Town's style of play. Hartlepool assistant manager Craig Hignett had spoken in the week of how his side had struggled initially to do that in their last outing, at Newport County last Friday.
"We have to be committed and keep up the dirty, nasty work," he told BBC Tees.
"I'm talking winning second balls, closing down, tackling hard to matching your opponents' physicality. Against Newport we took 15 minutes to start doing any of that and by then were 1-0 down."
Aidy Boothroyd's men, meanwhile, went into the game buoyed by the last-gasp win against Fleetwood and the extension of in-form striker Luke Norris's loan deal with the club.
Team News: Hartlepool named an unchanged side. Chris Hackett missed out for the Cobblers although Clive Platt returned to the squad as a substitute.
1st Half: Highly-rated teenage midfielder Luke James opened the scoring for Hartlepool midway through a first half in which Town had a number of chances of their own with Norris dangerous.
2nd Half: The hosts got stronger throughout, however, and Walton converted a penalty just after the break which effectively ended the game. Platt entered the fray for a welcome return to action but Town remain rooted to the foot of the Football League.