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" Tuesday's game is vital. Saturday was a game we wanted three points from but we obviously failed to do that. It makes Tuesday's game all the more important. Against the likes of Carlisle, we will be looking to pick up three points. We will be hoping for a performance like the first 70 minutes on Saturday.
" We can't just think there'll be an easy way out of it now. We spoke in the dressing room after the game and acknowledged we've got a fight on our hands. We are confident we can push up the league and finish around that mid-table area. But it's definitely going to be a battle now. Hopefully it will turn around and we can catapult ourselves up the league.
" We knew what the job in hand was before Saturday. We were always aware of where we were in the league. We've had a tough run of games really which people didn't expect us to get points from and it has proved the case that we haven't. We are obviously looking to get a few wins now to end the season.
" We haven't been playing too badly, we've been performing pretty well. But you don't win things or stay in the league by good performances, you've got to get the goals to go with it and keep them out at the other end. It's something we haven't been doing of late, so it's something we need to improve on. "
Meanwhile Hartlepool Director of Sport Chris Turner commented to the Gazette :
" We have performed and competed against the top five teams in the league and competed extremely well. We have got to do that in the rest of the games this season against the mid-table teams and win those games. We created a ding dong game, which we expected anyhow, and it hinged on a couple of decisions which do transform a game.
" I always look at the league table and I know it's a situation. But I'm confident that these players will be positive and get the results that are required. We've got Carlisle next and let's be positive and kick on, I said to the players we need that same application - fight hard for everything, stand up and get in their faces. "
In team news for the home side tonight they will be missing influential winger Andy Monkhouse who picked up his tenth yellow card of the season in Hartlepool's 2-0 Victoria Park defeat against Huddersfield on Saturday. That meaning that Monkhouse will now have to serve a two match suspension.
Further up the pitch 23-year old striker James Brown may again be on the substitutes bench as he continues to get back to full fitness following a knee injury, while Colin Larkin was left out of the Huddersfield matchday 18 on his comeback from a hamstring strain. Finally in the normal frontline, David Foley was last week released from his Pools contract so that he could sign for USSF Division 2 Pro League side Puerto Rico Islanders.
Chris Turner has though strengthened his striking options for this evening by today signing 24-year old Sunderland centre-forward Roy O'Donovan on loan until the end of the season. O'Donovan finally signing on the bottom line after training at Victoria Park for the past two weeks, with Turner commenting to his official website :
" It's an opportunity for him to show us what he can do. He has genuine pace which I feel we've been lacking; we've watched him over a period of time and have been delighted to have the opportunity to look at him in training. I think he'll freshen things up for us and hopefully enjoy his spell with the club. "
The referee for tonight's match is Colin Webster, and he will be assisted down the lines by Jake Collin from Liverpool and Andy Newbold from Loughborough in Leicestershire. Meanwhile the fourth official is David Webb from County Durham.