Hartlepool United have parted company with manager Neale Cooper.

Reserve-team manager Martin Scott has been placed in temporary charge of first-team affairs after Cooper departed by mutual consent.

Cooper succeeded Mike Newell as Pool boss in 2003, shortly after the club were promoted.

Last season Cooper guided Pool to the play-offs, where they were beaten in the semi-finals by Bristol City.

Hartlepool won 48 of the 110 games during Cooper's managerial tenure.

He leaves Hartlepool three days before their crucial league game with Bournemouth, from which they need a draw to make the play-offs.

The former Ross County boss has been linked with a number of jobs back in his native Scotland, including managerless Dunfermiline this week.

"Neale is somebody I know and I like him but why he would do it at this time and leave Hartlepool, I don't know," said Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston.

"We certainly wouldn't bring anybody in for our last three games and I don't know what Neale's reasoning is because I haven't even spoken to him in about a year.

"It's news to me and we are not even at the stage of considering folk so this is way off the mark.