HARTLEPOOL United's record achievers have already been brought back down to earth by Neale Cooper.

Friday's 8-1 annihilation of Grimsby was Pool's biggest win since beating Barrow 10-1in 1959.

And despite the sky-high confidence and attitude in the squad, Cooper had his charges in for training on Saturday morning, when preparations for tonight's trip to Stockport started.

Pool are in a healthy fourth place in Division Two, moving there on Friday, and staying in dreamland on goal difference after Saturday's programme.

Their last weekend training session came after their only defeat of the campaign, at Luton a fortnight earlier. That was designed as a kick up the backside folllowing a poor display. Saturday's a different story altogether.

And despite racking up such a victory, Cooper had a warning for the rest of the division: "I'm not being over-critical here, how can you be after a win like that? But we played better in the first-half against Port Vale the other week.''

Cooper had bemoaned the quality of Pool's delivery in their previous outing, a 0-0 draw with Oldham and they responded in style on Friday.

"I said in the last third we weren't good enough,'' he said.

"What a reaction we got from the players. The quality of the passing was something else, the crossing, the balls into the area were miles better. I wanted more from the strikers as well, but I know with the ability we have we can hurt teams - we just needed to be a little bit more adventurous.

"We played with three strikers the other night and you could say it came off. I thought Ritchie Humphreys had his best game of the season so far. I said to him that he hadn't shown me yet the sort of form he showed in Holland in pre-season. It was the same with Mark Tinkler and Eifion Williams, and they are all key players for us."

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