Keep your thoughts on Latics, warns Turner

HARTLEPOOL caretaker manager Chris Turner is demanding FA Cup-style heroics from his team when they take on Athletic at Boundary Park tomorrow.

Turner plotted his side’s giantkilling act against Premier League outfit Stoke City last Saturday.

But the triumphant players had barely trooped off the Victoria Park pitch after possibly the greatest-ever result in the club’s 100-year history before Turner was looking ahead to the Coca-Cola League One fixture against Athletic.

Turner is anxious that ’Pool, who are in a low mid-table position, don’t become distracted by their FA Cup exploits after being paired with West Ham, another Premier League side, in the fourth round.

“While I want us to enjoy the win we had against Stoke, we cannot let it interfere with our league form,” said Turner.

“We have six points to play for before we can even start to think about West Ham, which is being televised live.”

The former Manchester United goalkeeper wants his players to adopt the same mental approach to the one he had in his playing days.

He said: “By five o’clock on a Saturday that afternoon’s game had gone and I was already looking forward to which team we would be playing next week and which strikers I would be facing.

“While our performance and the result against Stoke was excellent, we must put that behind us.

“We have important league games against Oldham and Northampton to play before West Ham.

“I will be looking for the same level of performance against Oldham that we had against Stoke and, if we slip up, it will not be good enough.”

Turner, who took temporary charge of ’Pool after Danny Wilson’s recent dismissal, admitted the team’s position, only four points clear of the relegation places, is a worrying one.

The club’s director of football added: “I am looking to stabilise the situation and move up the league.

“We are only one win from the top half of the table yet only one defeat from being in trouble at the bottom, such is the tightness of the division.”

Turner believes the victory over Stoke under-lined the potential of the team and showed they are under-achieving in League One.

He points to Aussie striker Joel Porter, who has scored 13 goals this season, as being a key player, along with Matty Robson, Gary Liddle and Michael Nelson.

Turner, a former team-mate of Athletic manager John Sheridan at Sheffield Wednesday, admitted that ’Pool’s cup exploits have provided a feelgood factor and could not have been better timed in this, the club’s centenary season.

He said: “The exposure we have been receiving has been fantastic, both for the club and the town.

“Hartlepool hardly gets spoken about as a football team. Here in the North-East it is an outpost as Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough get all the limelight.

“The town and the club has had hard times in the past, but the town is thriving and we are also enjoying good times.”

Athletic drew 3-3 at Hartlepool earlier in the season and they will be aware that tomorrow’s visitors have won twice in their four most recent visits to Boundary Park.

’Pool have already won on their travels at Peterborough, Walsall and Carlisle but, significantly, the last of those away-day triumphs came at the end of October.

Athletic, meanwhile, will be looking to translate draws into victories as five of their last six league games have ended in stalemate, a statistic which is hurting their bid for promotion.


LEAGUE ONE FIXTURES

TOMORROW - Bristol Rovers v Yeovil, Cheltenham v Millwall, Leeds v Carlisle, Leicester v Leyton Orient, MK Dons v Colchester, Northampton v Huddersfield, Athletic v Hartlepool, Scunthorpe v Hereford, Southend v Crewe, Swindon v Stockport, Tranmere v Peterborough, Walsall v Brighton.