MICKY Barron has no fears about leading Hartlepool United out at Cheltenham tonight.

And the Pool skipper is relishing answering the doubters in the best possible manner.

Pool go to Whaddon Road to face Cheltenham, with many feeling the home side are in the driving seat after Saturday's 1-1 first-leg Victoria Park draw.

But Barron, who crossed for Eifion Williams to open the scoring on Saturday, said: "I think a lot of people wanted us to be 3-0 up after 15 minutes on Saturday, but we needed an early goal to give everyone a lift.

"It was a bit nervous for everyone on Saturday and in the end we were punished for a mistake.

"But that can happen to anyone and now we hope that one of their team makes a mistake on Tuesday and it's our turn to capitalise.

"I would like to think we can win - we are not out of it by a long way, we firmly believe we can do it.

"They have got to come out and we have the players capable of making the most of it.''

Pool will be backed by over 1,000 fans tonight and Barron said: "On Saturday there was a lot of supporters there who maybe hadn't been to watch us for a long time and they expected us to win.

"But we cannot blame them, because the crowd and our supporters were magnificent and we went into the break on a real high.

"It's great to have a crowd like that behind you and they can really make a difference.

"We know we will have plenty of support at Cheltenham and we hope we can reward them.

"It's a one-off game now and I would always fancy us in a one-off situation to beat anyone.

"A lot of people don't expect us to win and it's up to us to prove them wrong.''

Saturday's scorer Williams has bagged five goals in six starts since moving from Torquay and said the players will be looking to Turner in the dressing room for inspiration.

He said: "He knows what the tempo of the game will be and I think it is an important factor.

"He is the kind of manager who settles the players down. He did that at Exeter and everyone was calm about it and all the players want to play for him.

"Last year I was at the bottom of the league with Torquay, there was a lot of nerves among the players, but there is no real pressure on us - it's better to be like this.''

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