Hartlepool United's on-loan defender Sam Lavelle believes there have been plenty of "good signs" despite the club's lowly position in the National League.

Pools are in the bottom four, having lost 11 of their 16 league games and changed bosses with Pete Wild replacing Lee Clark last month.

Lavelle, 30, arrived on loan from League Two Grimsby Town shortly after and has just extended that deal for a further 28 days.

The defender has played five matches in that time and thinks they should be higher than their current 21st spot.

"When you look at the results, you worry about what you're coming into, but I've seen some good signs over the last few weeks," he told BBC Radio Tees.

"The gaffer has made a massive difference in terms of work rate, we're looking fitter and training harder with more intensity and the results in the last three or four weeks have not reflected the performances."

As someone relatively new to the squad, Lavelle is calling upon his team-mates to have more belief in their ability.

They now have three games against other sides in the bottom seven which offer a chance for Pools to move clear of trouble, starting at home to Wealdstone on Saturday (15:00 GMT).

"If you look at the games this month, they're all winnable," he added. "I said to the lads after Boreham Wood that we're a bigger club than most teams in this league and we should be going into matches with a slight arrogance in a way.

"That's a big thing to get that belief back. I can't question the work rate - I see it every day in training - but I can question the belief which is understandable as results haven't been great, so that's the main thing."