CHRIS Turner has had enough play-off heartache in recent years - and he doesn't want to suffer again tonight.

After back-to-back play-off defeats against Blackpool and Darlington in the last two years, Hartlepool United go to Cheltenham desperate to go one better.

Pool have yet to win a game in five play-off outings and Saturday's 1-1 Victoria Park draw left Steve Cotterill's side favourites to progress, but Turner insisted: "I have every confidence in my players. Cheltenham are going to have to come out a bit more and I know they will.

"We played very well earlier in the season down there and that is the sort of performance for 90 minutes we need. A lot of their fans were celebrating at the end on Saturday and quite rightly so, I suppose. They think they have gone and done the hard part at our place and think the easy part is now at Cheltenham, which is fair comment from their point of view.

"But we won't be the first team to win in the second leg away from home. We have to remain positive - now it is a one-off game.''

And after transforming Pool into one of the Division's best sides since taking over in February 1999, Turner said: "Whatever happens on Tuesday, the achievement here is what we have done over the last three years, not what happens at Cheltenham on Tuesday night. We have developed a club from almost nothing.''

Bookmakers last night offered Cheltenham at 13-8 and Pool at 4-1 to progress to Division Two and Turner knows what he is up against. "With respect to our supporters who wanted us to win by a few goals on Saturday, we were talking about Cheltenham who are a good side,'' he said.

"They have good players. You would expect Devaney to do well, you would expect Alsop to do well, you would expect Duff and Victory to be outstanding like they were.

"It's not like we are playing a poor team who were raising their game and we were left disappointed because we didn't win.

"We played a very good team and they performed exactly how I expected. The disappointing factor for me is that some people came along on Saturday and seemed surprised that Cheltenham limited us to a handful of chances and then played well themselves.

"If it was Halifax Town or someone else down at the bottom, I would have been very disappointed, but I'm not disappointed because our boys played well against them, created chances, scored one and could have had others.

"If we had won 2-1 I would have been asked all about going through to Cardiff. If Adam Boyd's chance had gone in and even if we had won 2-0 I know we still would have had a hell of a task to go through.

"If our boys go down there and play like we can then we have every chance to go through.''

Pool harshly lost 3-0 at Whaddon Road two months back, a result which saw Turner declare Cheltenham would enjoy automatic promotion and he said: "If they didn't have a bad start like we did they would have been up.

"We have to be ready for the assault that we know will come from them, but we have to start like we did down there in the League game. Of course we have to keep things tight and we don't want to concede an early goal, but if we defend well and get chances we will do alright.

"And if we get an early goal then it puts pressure on Cheltenham.

"When you are playing the top teams, you only win by the odd goal. It will be a tight game and I don't think Steve Cotterill went home on Saturday night thinking 'we've done it now and we'll win easily on Tuesday'. They know they are in for a tough game.''

Cheltenham stifled Saturday's game and would have been content to go back home with a single goal defeat, let alone a draw.

Tonight's game will be more open and Turner, who has the option of switching to a 3-5-2 line-up, added: "I thought we had a good first-half on Saturday and edged the first 25 minutes of the second-half, but we didn't take our chances and conceded at the end.

"Now we are playing cup football, I never felt we were going to win the game on Saturday by three or four and it would be all over in the first tie.

"They are a good side and probably one of the best in the Division - they are capable of going away and grinding out a result as they proved. We had an inkling that they may play 4-5-1, but I thought we defended well. For them, it was a classic away performance.

"They wanted us to hit balls from back to front because they had big lads at the back and they were always going to win the majority of balls. That meant we had to keep it down and build from the back and into midfield.''

If the boss opts to play three at the back, Paul Arnison would come in on the right side for Adam Boyd, with Mark Robinson dropping out on the left. Mark Tinkler, fit again after a knee injury, or Paul Stephenson are candidates for a central role. Pool will be backed by around 1,100 fans in front of a packed audience and Turner's ability to relax his players before the game will come into play.

Steve Cotterill is expecing a tactical game and admitted: "Obviously the two sides know each other very well and know each other's strengths and weaknesses.

"Looking to the second leg, we know that Hartlepool can switch to a 3-5-2 formation with Paul Stephenson and maybe Mark Tinkler coming in so that is a distict possibility.

"I think Chris will be flexible but I think we will be more flexbile.

"Chris has said that they could come here and try to stifle us like we stifled them. We would be quite happy for them to do that, we know that we might have to be patient."

Pool (from): A Williams, Barron, Lee, Westwood, Robinson, Boyd, Humphreys, Smith, Watson, E Williams, Arnison, Tinkler, Stephenson, Simms, Easter, Hollund.

Pool have just a handful of tickets from their 1,150 allocation remaining and they are on sale at Victoria Park until noon.

Away goals do not count double. If the score is level after 90 minutes and extra time, away goals do not come into play and the tie will be decided on penalties. Tonight's game is refereed by Andy Hall.

Read more about Hartlepool here.