IF it's entertainment and goals you are looking for there's only one place to be.

Victoria Park, Hartlepool might seem an unlikely venue to outsiders and cynics alike, but that's where it's happening.

Saturday's 5-1 demolition of Southend came on the back of thumping wins over Torquay, Scunthorpe, Rushden and Orient, taking Pool's goal tally to an impressive 22 in five home encounters.

It's hard to recall a better team playing better football at Victoria Park and how long since fans had this level of entertainment?

Other results might not have gone Pool's way on Saturday, rivals Shrewsbury and Rushden both won and Pool stand on the verge of the play-offs, still four points off seventh and with big games at Cheltenham tomorrow and Kidderminster on Saturday.

Turner has set his players a minimum 65 point haul to reach the play-offs. They are now on 50, but of their remaining 12 games only five are at home, the dream scenario of winning each would give them 65 so picking up points away from home will be the difference.

These three points leave Pool on 50 points after 34 games - as Turner rightly pointed out a fantastic achievement after being dumped on the bottom of the table with just 15 points after 16 games.

But the current tally is still short on their previous campaigns; last season, Pool were on 58 points after 34 games and 12 months earlier they had 53.

But with Ritchie Humphreys finding his scoring boots and Gordon Watson back in the next week to further boost the firepower, they have every chance of making it.

Humphreys' second goal was a peach and he admitted: "It was up there with the best of them. I turned and hit it well and managed to swerve it late past the keeper - but it was the sort of strike that can go anywhere.

"At home you cannot fault our form. We were disappointed in the end to concede a goal, we would rather have gone on and won 6-0. We have got one of the best scoring records in the League so if we can take that into our away form now. We've had three away games, so we are delighted to come back home and get five goals.''

And now Humphreys has his sights on a top seven spot. "We've got 12 games to go, we will keep going and hopefully we can sneak in to the play-off frame.

"Gordon Watson is on the mend and it will be good for us to get everyone back.

"Adam Boyd has come in and been excellent and Jermaine has been scoring as well, we've still been scoring goals and it was nice personally to get a couple.

"With someone like Paul Smith we are always going to create chances, he puts great balls in there. He gets some stick about his right foot, but he go left or right and can put them in either side.''

Few clubs have the ability to construct a press box that leaves part of the pitch obscured but the newly-opened construction at Victoria Park does just that.

In the past, maybe missing the action wouldn't be a bad thing, but not these days and on this occasion the Southend reporters were the only scribes happy to hide below the parapet and avoid the onslaught.

Southend were awful, but awful teams must still be beaten. Torquay, every bit as bad as Southend, were at Pool a fortnight earlier and demolished in a spell that left them three-down after 20 minutes - and look at the result they managed in the North-East on Saturday.

Yet Anthony Williams had to make the game's first save, diving in front of Tes Bramble to block his eight-yard shot.

Four minutes later Southend player-boss Rob Newman headed against his own bar and Humphreys was Pool's Jonny-on-the-spot to turn the ball in.

Smith should have made it two, but pulled his shot into the side netting and Mark Tinkler - enjoying putting one over his old club - went close with an overhead effort. It was two when Coppinger rifled in after a goalmouth scramble that had four visiting defenders falling over themselves to halt Tinkler's progress.

Adam Boyd ran at Southend from halfway, tricked his way along the goalline and rolled the ball right across goal when he deserved goal number nine of the season.

Southend arrived on the back of a solid 1-1 draw at Cheltenham. Player-boss Newman must have headed back wondering what had hit him as Pool ran his defence ragged.

He started the game in defence, had a brief spell pushed into midfield to try and stop Tinkler and Paul Stephenson, and then decided enough was enough and sat out the second half to save further embarassment.

After a ten-minute off spell at the start of the second-half, Pool soon hit back.

Humphreys turned hapless ex-Middlesbrough defender Phil Whelan and blasted in left-footed on the half-volley from 25 yards. It was the goal he's been trying to score all season.

Smith beat the offside trap - Whelan included of course - to pick up Tinkler's ball and make it four, and minutes later substitute Easter raced away to get on the end of Westwood's through ball and score with a neat finish.

Barrington Belgrave, the footballer with a name more akin to a Cluedo character than a footballer, netted a consolation on 89 minutes.

When will Pool be able to keep a clean sheet when the game is already won?

"When I used to play, I didn't like to concede goals,'' said Turner. "I want them to be ruthless and look for six goals rather than letting one in. I'm disappointed with that goal. There will be times during the season when we are hanging on a 1-0 and a slip like that could cost us''