HARTLEPOOL UNITED'S striking sensation Adam Boyd has thrown his weight behind Martin Scott's claim to the Victoria Park hot-seat.

Scott's first achievement as caretaker boss was to guide Pool to a League One play-off place for the second successive campaign by claiming the necessary point at Bournemouth on Saturday. The gritty performance, as much as the result after coming from behind twice to draw, defied the conspiracy theory that the dismissal of Neale Cooper was a bid to ensure the club do not win promotion.

If Scott does receive full backing from chairman Ken Hodcroft and lands the manager's post on a full-time basis he is understood to want former Sunderland team-mate Steve Agnew as his No 2.

He still faces competition from former Pool boss Chris Turner, known to be a leading candidate for a second term at the club he saved from relegation to the Conference when he took over in 1999.

But Scott appears to have the backing of the players, with Players' Player of the Year Boyd leading the calls for the reserve team boss to take the reins.

"The lads would be all happy if Martin Scott got the job. He has the professionalism required to succeed in management," said Boyd, who committed his future to the club this year by signing a new two-year deal.

"The professional approach he has, the way he does everything right, is a great asset to have. He works everyone really hard on the training pitch."

Boyd even went as far as to suggest that, while the timing may not have seemed perfect, Cooper's dismissal last Wednesday may have subconsciously added that extra importance to the fixture at Bournemouth.

"In a strange way it actually helped that Martin had to come in when he did. It meant there was nothing really to lose down at Bournemouth," said 27-goal Boyd ahead of tomorrow night's play-off first leg at home to Tranmere.

"If we got a result on Saturday we knew we would be in the play-offs; if we didn't then people would just have said that we didn't make it because the manager had gone. It actually worked in our favour.

"The change of manager did not make much of a difference to our set-up. Martin Scott has been with the squad for the past two years and it was the same routine really. Martin has done all the coaching work and has done much of the preparation for all the games."

Boyd's team-mate Ritchie Humphreys is pinching himself that Pool could actually be playing in a league higher than the club where he started his career, Sheffield Wednesday.

The Owls take on Brentford in the other League One play-off tonight and there is every chance Humphreys, who burst on to the scene at Hillsborough in 1995 as a talented teenager, could get one over his old club by beating them to promotion.

"When I came the club was on the way up," said Humphreys, a Sheffield United fan when he was younger. "It would be the perfect scenario to have us go up and leave Wednesday behind.

"For a club like this it would be a fantastic achievement to get into the Championship. No-one would have thought about Hartlepool being higher than Sheffield Wednesday when I was there and they were in the Premiership.

Since arriving at Pool in July 2001 - a Turner signing - he has played in two previous play-off campaigns and lost them both. He missed the final penalty in a shoot-out with Cheltenham three years ago and suffered heartache at Bristol City 12 months ago.

But Humphreys said: "There have been play-off battles five out of the last six years for this club and the other one was a promotion - that shows the massive progression this club has made.

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