HARTLEPOOL United boss Chris Turner saw his side make it five pre-season games without defeat - and then revealed he is ready to turn his attentions to making his side an even meaner outfit.

After wins over Billingham Town and Brann Bergen and draws with Blyth and Voss, Pool beat Berwick Rangers 1-0 on Saturday and even though Kevin Henderson's goal was Pool's 12th of the summer - with just three conceded - Turner is now ready to start work on his back line.

With last season's player of the year James Sharp suffering from sore shins, Saturday's trio of Micky Barron, Graeme Lee and Chris Westwood are in pole position to take their place against Mansfield a week on Saturday. And the Pool chief admitted: "The boys are looking fit and they can handle 90 minutes action. Now we have two weeks training left to work on systems and formation. "We are creating lots of chances, but there are still certain aspects of the team we need to work on.

"To be honest, we haven't done any work as a defensive unit yet - that is the next stage - but we have never looked like conceding goals.''

Pool's defensive strength will be helped by the arrival of Tommy Widdrington. His role is to sit in front of the back three to offer extra protection and while it benefits the back line, the team's creativity is bolstered to boot with Paul Stephenson given the freedom to roam around and he will be an instrumental figure in creating chances for the front men.

Pool created plenty of chances against the Scottish League side, but either squandered them or saw substitute keeper Willie McCulloch prove an invincible barrier. Martin Hollund started in goal for Pool ahead of Anthony Williams and was soon called into action, taking a leaf out of Williams' book to keep out a fifth minute penalty after a foul by Graeme Lee.

Pool were soon on the attack and Jon Bass fed Ian Clark, who shaved the bar with a fierce effort. Henderson netted five minutes before the break when he turned his marker and shot low, with the ball crossing the line despite appeals from the Berwick defenders.

McCulloch replaced Gary O'Connor at the break and he stopped Pool from enjoying a comfortable win.

Anth Lormor homed in on goal, but McCulloch was quick off his line first to deny Lormor and then stop Bass' follow up.

He again denied Lormor, this time with a flying save as the striker met a left-wing cross from six yards and the striker was then replaced as Turner gave his players a run out.

Substitute Ritchie Humphreys again linked up well and one sweet passing move towards the end saw Adam Boyd blaze over the bar.

Turner added: "It's important that we don't pick up any injuries pre-season and we are giving everyone a run out. It was warm out there for the players and pre-season games are very hard for players to lift themselves, maybe they play 15 per cent below themselves.

"Maybe we started a little slow, but picked it up for the last 25 minutes of the first half and could have had five or six.''

Pool: Hollund (Williams 46); Bass (Easter 72), Barron, Lee, Westwood (Simms 75), Clark; Tinkler (Robinson 75), Stephenson, Widdrington (Boyd 77), Lormor (Arnison 72), Henderson (Humphreys 55).

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