Salford boss Gary Bowyer admitted to having one eye on the play-offs after his side made it four straight wins with a 2-0 victory at Hartlepool.

The Ammies are now two points and two places adrift of the top seven with seven games to go.

They face Port Vale on Tuesday before meeting Harrogate on Saturday in a pivotal week.

“All round I felt we managed the game well, withstood some pressure and looked strong,” said Bowyer.

“One team sometimes comes from late into the play-offs and we are in the mix now. I’ve been around long enough to know what happens and we will enjoy this win and the manner of the goals, but we look at Tuesday now.

“We have seven games to go, a hell of a lot of points to play for. We’ve had 39 games and there’s no-one getting carried away. We did the same on Tuesday night and said ‘well done’ and we know there’s things we can do better.”

Two spectacular first-half goals earned Salford the points.

Corrie Nbada fired a low drive into the bottom corner from 20 yards to open the scoring but he was upstaged by right-back Jason Lowe nine minutes later as he struck a rising drive, high past goalkeeper Ben Killip from distance.

Bowyer added: “It’s quite a unique conversation now when we talk about the goalscorers.

“We are delighted for Corrie as it’s his first goal and to score like that with his right foot, it shocked him!

“We spoke about getting our full-backs out and we knew we could have an opportunity with Jason Lowe getting forward, but not in the manner he did in the top corner from that distance.

“We moved him to right-back as a necessity and now he’s got two assists and a wonder-strike.

“But all in all it is a pretty good afternoon for us.”

Pools have one win in six and sit mid-table in their first season back in the EFL after four years in the National League.

Their season is in danger of meekly petering out, and boss Graeme Lee said: “One team looked like they had something to play for, one didn’t. It’s disappointing.

“We want to go out there with nothing to lose and have a bit of enjoyment on the pitch, but instead it was far from enjoyable.

“None of us would enjoy that. You need to work hard and win headers and second balls and have desire to run forward and get in the box.

“We speak about the season and the main priority was staying the League and that’s fantastic what the players have done, but that’s not enjoyable.

“It looks like it’s end-of-season syndrome. If your mindset isn’t right, then performances and results like this happen.”