'Pools boss Neale Cooper spoke to his club's official website and the Hartlepool Mail ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Victoria Park tomorrow afternoon, Cooper hoping for a lift in confidence after 'Pools defeated Scunthorpe 2-0 at home last weekend:
“It has been a really good week, I think us winning last weekend was a big confidence boost against a Scunthorpe team that was battling for everything themselves because they haven’t started that well. Hopefully the confidence has rubbed off on the players, they have looked sharp, they have looked really good and upbeat this week in training and hopefully we can go out and put on a good show. I still think there is a lot more to come from the players in a better way, so hopefully they will go out and show that.
“I think just getting on the scoresheet was very important last week, and two very good goals from Jonny Franks and Luke James and Stevie (Howard) has unfortunately missed a penalty. Defensively positive, two home games, two clean sheets, try to keep that up because I think we are a team that will always create chances. Micky Barron has done a lot of good work with the defence yesterday, looking at the strengths that Carlisle have and trying to counter that.
“I worked a little bit with the midfield and the strikers, so they have had a lot of intense stuff but hopefully stuff that will help them. We’ve heard good reports about Matty Robson of late and I’ve always liked the lad Jon-Paul McGovern wide right. They have experience up front in Danny Cadamarteri and they have signed Jake Jervis on loan from Birmingham. Carlisle will be a handful but hopefully our defence will deal with that.”
“Last season winning 4-0 was a game you could sit back and really enjoy because from the word go we were on top form, just driving at them all the time and they came here in form. But, Greg (Abbott) always has a good team, a really good squad, he has got a great bunch of boys, he is a great coach and manager and he has got a good coaching staff. He always tries to play the game the right way and he is a character as well. Some managers you get on with and there are some I wouldn’t waste my time with, but he is a good guy and it will be nice to see him."
“But, at the end of the day we are after the same thing, we are both after the three points and I am sure he will be saying that to his own players. So, that is the most important thing but if it can be a game like it was last season it would be great for us, but any win would be great because they are a good side. They will come here with confidence not bad, they were unfortunate to get knocked out the other night in the cup by Preston, so they will be coming here trying to bounce back after that.
“It was a fantastic atmosphere last season and they filled the away end, so it was a good atmosphere apart from the smoke bombs coming on the pitch so no more of those please. It was better for us because we did win the game quite convincingly on the day. But, let’s go on a little run now and do improve and do things sharper at times, a bit better quality. It’s hard though because we’re salary capped this year and you can only spend the revenue you bring in and at the moment we are on the borderline.
“After the game last week I was maybe a bit hard because I thought it was a good win but we could do better, other people said they enjoyed the game so maybe that is me asking too much. But, I know what they are capable of which is why I get like I do sometimes, when they are on top form they can play and it is just doing it in a more consistent manner. The home form was tragic last year, and once you get in that run where you can’t win at home it is very difficult to get out of it, but eventually we did last season, so hopefully we can keep winning our home matches.
“Our play in those wide areas will be important. If we can get the delivery in and the full-backs can support and we can get the right balls in to Stevie (Howard) than that is a big part of our game. I don’t just mean lumping balls up the park, because every team we play against are putting two defenders on him, one in front, one behind to try to counter his threat. It’s hard but because of that our other lads can benefit from that. If an extra player is taken out of the game to try to take care of him then we should look to make the most of it.
“At the other end, we have got to stop crosses quicker than we do. It needs hard work to do it but we have got to close down teams better, especially from the wider areas. We’ve got to get closer to those boys and stop getting crosses coming in to our box. We need to tidy up the slack parts and we will be OK. The good thing though as I’ve said is the two clean sheets that we’ve got at home and the boys can take confidence from that.”