Still highlights Wyke threat

The 24-year-old has netted four goals in nine games since arriving from Middlesborough and recently had his stay extended by a further two months.

Former West Ham and Aston Villa striker Marlon Harewood, who cost £4million earlier in his career is also at Pools as Still said: “They’ve got a boy on loan called Charlie Wyke from Middlesbrough. He’s decent, I like him and is a handful upfront.

“Harewood’s obviously an experienced player and I’m sure that with that experience comes knowledge, so he’ll know how to play games and win games.

“Some people say as you get older your legs go and they do, but your brain gets stronger and if he’s playing, I’m sure that he’ll be a strength.

“There are 11 players out there though and one of them might have a special day. I one has a special day, we have to make sure we can able to deal with that.

“I don’t really worry about other teams, they have some strengths and we have to deal with the strengths that they bring to the party.”

Still was also wary of the impact that caretaker manager Sam Collins would have to the side as after Colin Cooper resigned earlier this month, he won his first game in charge, a surprise 2-1 triumph at Exeter last week.

The Town boss continued: “They had a good win at Exeter and I’d seen Exeter play the week previous at Dagenham, and I thought Exeter were very good.

“We got a match report and Hartlepool played very well. We see it with Carlisle, a new manager comes in and everything ups, everyone raises their level.

“This is a tough, tough game, but so was last week and so was the week before, and so will next week be.

“Every time we play a tough game, it should make us a better team, that’s how I think, I hope it’s tough Saturday as I want us to get better.

“I never worry about that and don’t look at changes of managers though, all I worry about is what I can control, I can’t control what other teams do.”

Although the game is one of Town’s longest away trips of the season, the side will be roared on by over 400 fans as Still said: “It’s a long journey, it’s not ideal, we go overnight so the players get a rest, we train on the way so they don’t miss training.

“I always say, you can use that as an excuse, you really can, but we’d all be saying it.

“The people that can make excuses are people who want to find excuses. I prefer to say lets find a way of winning not a way of losing.

“Loads of teams have got to go there this year, 20 other clubs go there, we haven’t go to go on a Tuesday night, so if things don’t go well for us, the travel and where it is won’t be an excuse.”

Town head into the game on the back of four straight wins and are unbeaten in six league matches, as Still added: “The past few games have seen us just improve a little bit in certain areas.

“At the start of the season, I didn’t think we played terribly, we played okay, but the difference between winning and losing are small.

“What we’ve done is just close those gaps a little bit and turned decent performances into winning performances like last year.

“I’m very pleased with everyone at the moment, considering we’ve had to chop and change a little bit recently, but I think that’s why you try to have a decent squad.”