JOE Royle predicted it and Martin Scott is sure the words of the Ipswich boss will ring true this afteroon.

Hartlepool United meet Tamworth at Victoria Park in the second round of the FA Cup this afternoon, with a place in tomorrow's draw up for grabs.

And Pool have been boosted by the decision of Royle to allow on-loan striker Dean McDonaldto become Cup-tied by turning out against the Nationwide Conference side today.

McDonald made an impressive first start for Pool in last week's win at Bradford, where he caused plenty of problems for defenders David Wetherall and Mark Bower in Pool's 1-0 win.

There were 433 Pool fans at Valley Parade to watch his display and now Scott can't wait to show off his new striker to the Victoria Park crowd this afternoon.

"It was a big boost when he was given permission to play in the FA Cup,'' said Scott. "We only met up with him on the Friday before the Gillingham game a couple of weeks ago, so it was the right thing to do when we started with him on the bench.

"He was introduced and showed glimpses of what he can do, but the game was difficult at the time.

"Last week, we all saw what he is capable of doing, he was exciting and I think the fans who were at Bradford appreciated his talents.

"There has been a lot of talk about what he did last week among the fans. We knew what he can do because Aggers (Steve Agnew, assistant manager) knew of him from his time at Leeds.

"And when we signed him, Joe Royle said he is the sort of player who can excite the crowd. He's a little bit unpredictable and we have missed that this season with Adam Boyd and Joel Porter missing.

"He caused plenty of problems for the Bradford defence last week, there's no doubt about it and I'm sure that our fans - and there will be a lot of them who weren't at the game - will be looking forward to seeing him play for the first time.''

Pool's home form has been erratic this season - just two wins and four draws from seven in League One but two wins from two in cup competitions - however, Scott is confident he has the strikeforce to cause problems today.

McDonald and Chris Llewellyn may have only played together for 20 minutes in training before the Bradford game, but they developed a quick understanding.

Llewellyn played that role for Wrexham last season before his move to Pool and Scott admitted: "It's been tough for Chris, he's been played on the wing and has been in and out of the team.

"But last week was the first time he's played in the position I signed him for. He played there every week for Wrexham - and Juan Ugarte got a lot of goals and a lot of headlines last season, but it was Chris who created and helped him score many of them.

"They scored six against us at Victoria Park and Chris had a hand in five of them, that's what he is capable of.

"He's been given a chance and he took it very well.''

The Lambs, managed by one-time Pool midfielder Mark Cooper, sit fourth bottom in the Conference table. They lost 2-0 at Altringham last week and have found goals hard to come by.

But they won at Bournemouth in round one and Scott warned: "They had a very good result in the last round and it's up to us to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again.

"There's no danger of us taking them lightly - look what happened to Bournemouth. We've had them watched and looked at videos of them, so we have done our homework.

"We know that they are a good team and they will be well organised - there's also the extra factor in that Mark Cooper is coming back to the club and he will be trying to impress.

"We know we played well last week, but that will count for nothing against Tamworth. We beat Dagenham and Redbridge in the last round at home and we know that the performance that day wasn't pretty.

"But all it's about is getting through and making sure we are in Sunday's draw.

"That's the aim, if it's not nice and pretty but we get through I think we will take it.

"The competition has been good to us in recent years, we've had some good little runs and, of course, there was the game at Sunderland.

"We had the chance to go there and play on a big stage - the aim is to repeat it and make sure we are in the third round draw.''

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