Hartlepool United go head to head with another former manager today aiming for a repeat of the last time they faced one of last season's bosses.

Pool go to Luton to face Mike Newell's side, meeting the manger who took them to promotion last season, for the first time since he was appointed boss at Kenilworth Road.

And after winning at Chris Turner's Sheffield Wednesday in the Carling Cup this month - part of their unbeaten start to the season - Pool go there brimming with confidence.

Neale Cooper, Pool's third boss in eight months, has made a flying start to his Victoria Park career, with two wins and two draws from his start in Division Two.

Micky Barron, captain as Pool ended last season in second place, said: "It should be an interesting day, a strange one as well.

"Both teams have had a good start and personally I'm looking forward to it for another reason and playing against Stevie Howard.

"Mike was a bit of a one-off, you did things his way and he's not bothered about what other people think.''

Today's starting XI will only feature five of the team Newell sent out at Rushden on the final day of the season.

Providing he recovers from a calf strain, Barron will be one of them, and will be joined in the 16 on duty Pool's young guns - Steven Istead, Jim Provett and Matty Robson - who have all made their mark this season.

Barron said: "We've brought a few new players in and the manager has given the young players a chance.

"He said at the start of the season that everyone would get a chance no matter who they are, whatever age they are, and all the young lads have been outstanding.

"They are all good players and are proving it. It's been hard for us all stepping up a level, but these lads have come in and just taken it in their stride.

"Perhaps playing in a new division has worked in their favour because they haven't had a step up from the other division, they have just come straight in.

"We've had three hard games away from home and are still unbeaten. We've gone to Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City and remained unbeaten, so why should we fear anyone?

"Plenty of people thought we would be the whipping boys, but it certainly hasn't been like that.''

Barron has made the right-back role his own this season, successfully converting from a central defender, and admitted: "I'm just happy to be in this team. I missed out at Peterborough and thought it might be a long time before I got back in.

"I was resigned to sitting out a few games and biding my time, but I got back in quickly.''

Newell was axed in May, with chairman Ken Hodcroft later admitting he believed the manager had taken Pool as far as he could.

The former Blackburn striker has this week refused to comment on his departure from Victoria Park, saying only: "I'm looking forward to it because I had a good relationship with the players there but it's no more important than any other game."

However, earlier this month he revealed he had lost faith with the game while he was Pool boss, after his relationship with chairman Ken Hodcroft had broken down.

"I enjoyed the football at Hartlepool,'' he said. "But the owners were oil men. They wanted to run Hartlepool like it was an oil company.

"I was not prepared to do that. I remember one night in particular when, feeling disillusioned, I went home and watched an old Bill Shankly video. I remembered why I love football.

"Yet a lot of honourable people in the game lose out today because they're not prepared to put the knife in someone else's back. It's distressing. The purity of football, and football at its best is a very pure game, is being ruined by ruthless men."

Newell left Pool on Friday, May 30, and was appointed Luton boss on June 23, after a controversial Pop Idol-style vote set up by then owner John Gurney.

He added: "The day after I left Hartlepool Tim Sherwood, one of my Blackburn teammates, asked me if I would be interested in the vacancy at Luton. I'd joined Luton at 20 and had two seasons with them. I was on £250 a week. They were good days and I knew this was a good club.

"I jumped at the idea of coming back. Tim had been asked to call me by Lee Power, another former player, who had just met John Gurney.

"Gurney's plans were all pie-in-the-sky. Even the telephone poll was a lot of hoo-ha. But I felt for Mick Harford. I called him and we spoke. He knew I'd come through the same thing at Hartlepool."