PLAY-OFF chasing Chris Turner has handed his players a nine-point target.

Turner takes his Hartlepool United squad to Kidderminster today on the back of a 3-0 defeat at Cheltenham on Tuesday.

And the Pool boss, who celebrated his third year in charge at Victoria Park this week, knows avoiding defeat is vital this afternoon.

"It's another important game for us and we can't really afford to lose," he said.

"It's not the end of the world if we do, but it puts pressure on us for the next two home games. Nine points from these three games will give us a real platform to go forward.''

Pool's away form has been their downfall this season - just 16 points out of 50 have been earned on the road.

And Turner said: "It's your away form that will lift you into the top three. If you are going to go up automatically then you need to win away from home regularly.

"We had nine away wins last season and it's the difference between finishing in mid-table, the play-offs or the top three.

"Look at how many chances we created against Southend last week. You can really push players on at home - away from home you can't.

"How many times does Mark Tinkler get forward and into the box in away games compared with home? It's a different game completely.

"But for 40 minutes at Cheltenham we dominated the game. We could have gone there and enticed them to come at us and still lost, but at least we had a go at them.

"Conceding two goals right on half-time knocked the stuffing out of us and everything we were preparing for half-time went out of the window.''

Turner's striking options are boosted by the return to fitness of Gordon Watson. He is back in the frame three weeks after keyhole knee surgery and Turner said: "It's great to have him back. We have a busy week coming up and he will play some part in the game.''

The Pool boss was happy with the form of midfielder Paul Stephenson in midweek.

He enjoyed his best performance of the season at Whaddon Road and Turner said: "He did exceptionally well.''

Stephenson, sidelined for over two months with a knee injury, was satisfied with his display and admitted: "It's taken a few games to get there but I have felt I've been getting better every game.

"I've missed a few games of late and I'm one year older than last season and it is taking a bit longer to get fit.

"Cheltenham was my first 90 minutes for a long time and the first one since I was injured.

"It was going so well in the first-half and it was really frustrating that it came to nothing.

"I've played for 90 minutes and it was just what I needed. I've played for an hour, then 75 minutes, but that extra 15 will have done me good and taken me a little but closer to full fitness.

"Kidderminster is a great chance for us to bounce back. We will go there and be positive, like we were in the first half at Cheltenham, but we have to cut out the mistakes.

"Tony Naylor scored twice and I think he is playing a level or two below his ability. Maybe we switched off a little bit for the first goal, everyone was thinking about the big lads and then he got in to score.

"It was a very frustrating game because of how well we played in the first 40 minutes, but we know we are a good team. There's still a lot of points to play for and we believe we can make the play-offs.

"We should have been coming in at the break on a high, looking to keep things more of the same, instead we went in thinking what we were going to do to get back in the game.

"We gave away two disappointing goals, it was so hard to lift up after that. We needed to take the game to them and get a quick goal if we were going to get back in it.''

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