MICKY Nelson's future could be decided in the coming days.

Neale Cooper left the big defender out of his Hartlepool United squad for Saturday's rout of Aldershot.

And Pool proved, with Ben Clark back from a hamstring strain, they can cope without the wantaway defender.

The player wants away and Cooper doesn't want an unhappy player in his squad.

And Cooper, whose side now face Boston at Victoria Park in round three, said: "I just felt it has been a funny week for him.

"There's been a lot of speculation flying about and maybe it is affecting him.I'm grateful to him for playing twice in the last week, but I felt things were getting to him a wee bit.

"I wondered if he would be OK to play at Oldham last week and I spoke to him about it, but there was no problem.

"I told him on Thursday that I wasn't going to play him on Saturday because Ben was coming back and he could have the weekend to see what happens."

Hull are the only club so far to bid and Cooper added: "There's no developments to report, nothing else has happened.''

Cooper's side netted three second-half goals to kill off the Conference side and he admitted: "The game was like the Lincoln match in the last round in that it could have been a tricky one.

"We really dominated and played some good stuff, but let them back into it. We gave them a goal, it was a good goal, a well-worked one, and gave them a lift.

"They started winning headers up front and had players running off him. We had words at the break, because we had played some good football and hadn't killed them off.

"We put Sweeney back in there to check the runs from midfield and it worked.''

Adam Boyd netted twice and Cooper feels his leading scorer his back to his best.

"They hit the bar, but from them we started moving the ball quicker and pushed them back. Up front, Joel and Boydy looked more like the partnership they can be.

"The last few games they hadn't linked well together and that has been a big part of their game. But they looked good together again. Two goals will be good for Boydy, he had that bit of sharpness back and I'm pleased for him. He is getting back to his best like he was before he had the injury.

"There was an improvement and two goals will do his confidence good."

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