Chris Turner is back at Hartlepool United albeit in a different role. Sports Editor Nick Loughlin spoke to Paul Stephenson and Micky Barron about the impact he had first time round.

A SUMMER pre-season friendly at Billingham Town may not carry the most significance when it comes to shaping a season. For Hartlepool United, a trip to Bedford Terrace in July 2000 has gone a long way to shaping the club's future.

After Chris Turner staved off relegation to the Conference with a 14-game success, his next party piece was to turn the club into play-off candidates just 12 months later.

It was some turnaround at Victoria Park as the club set out on the path that would lead to five play-off seasons and a promotion campaign in six years.

While Turner turned it around off the pitch, on it he had a new lieutenant.

Paul Stephenson had made little impact at the club since joining from York City in 1998.

The Wallsend-born winger, destined for big things as a Newcastle United starlet in the mid-80s, was coming to the end of his playing days.

But Turner's decision to switch him into a central midfielder reaped big rewards. His first game in his new role was that 4-0 friendly win and he went on to become a mainstay in the team.

Now, with Pool at the wrong end of the table for the first time since the former Sunderland goalkeeper first arrived at the club, their partnership has been rekindled.

Stephenson is in control of the first team at Victoria Park. Turner is the club's Director of Sport, taking care of off-field matters.

With such mutual respect already in place between the pair, the club's owners hope the relationship continues where it left off.

"Chris has come in to sort out any problems we have had and he's done that in the short time he's been here,'' said Stephenson. "It's all helped me concentrate on the business end of it - doing it on the green grass.

"It's nice to have him here, we all know where we are and it's up to me to delegate things. I was doing everything for a short while, but now I know Chris is here to help me do all that and it should make my job a lot easier.''

Even while Pool were up against the drop seven years ago, Stephenson played only a small part. In Turner's 14 games, he started only two.

But that was before his new role and, after scoring at Southend on the final day of the season in 1999, Stephenson's final kick in professional football came with a successful spot-kick in the penalty shoot-out at Cheltenham in 2002.

"Chris looked after me in terms of a contract as a player,'' admitted Stephenson. "I was 33 and he offered me a two-year deal, I thank him for that.

"I did well for him as well, otherwise he wouldn't have given me it, so it works both ways.

"I always had a good relationship with Chris and long may that continue.

"He gave me a new lease of life as a player and it was a lease of life I needed because the time had come when I wasn't quick enough on the wing anymore. I certainly felt quick enough when he moved me inside - obviously there were more players inside and I had Tommy Miller doing all my running!

"But it was good for me, I didn't feel inhibited in there, I had a bit of space to play in. When you play out wide it's tight, there's only a little space to get in quickly. All of a sudden I was in the middle and had all the field to play with.

"I got a player-of-the-year award as well, which at that stage of my career was welcome.''

Stephenson, in charge of his fourth game this afternoon, added: "When he came in we were bottom of the league and heading for the drop to the Conference.

"He got everyone organised and set everything up for what was to follow.

"There was a big turnaround in things and looking back - and I think Chris will be the first to say this - a lot of the lads who were already at the club played a big part in what went on.

"Myself, Graeme Lee, Micky Barron and Tommy Miller all played in both good and bad times.

"Obviously he got the organisational skills right and it was onwards and upwards after that."

Pool will come up against Lee this afternoon after his recent move to Doncaster, Miller is suspended for Sunderland's game tomorrow at Birmingham and could be in the stands at Victoria Park, while Barron remains an integral part of the Pool camp.

While Turner's switch with Stephenson paid dividends, his decision to convert Barron from central defender to right back brought further reward.

Barron, club captain, is in his testimonial season at Victoria Park.

The club has come a long, long way since he first arrived in 1996 on loan from Middlesbrough and there's little doubt to whom he credits the success.

"It's nice to see Chris back, even though he's got a different job to do this time,'' said Barron. "When he was here we were a winning team and you associate him with winning and good times and good football.

"He can only help Beaver (Stephenson). He's there when he wants him and can ask him anything when he needs advice. I'm sure he will use him.

"As a player and manager they had a good understanding and Chris helped extend his playing career.

"He could see he was struggling a bit on the right, had a chat with him and moved him inside to get a few more good years out of him.

"They can bounce ideas off each other and help the club win a few more games this season.

"When he came in the club was a total mess - perhaps it was a situation we were used to then.

"The first thing he did was make us realise the challenge we had in front of us to stay in the league. He made everything more professional at the club, things like the diet on the team bus, training facilities and the impression of the club improved.

"We became more of a professional football club.

"Someone asked me the other day about the highlights of my time here and, funnily enough, the Scarborough game just after he arrived was one of them.

"I remember they missed a chance to go one-up, we turned it around to win, we stayed up and never looked back.

"A couple of years later we lost at Rushden on a Friday night and I scored an own goal.

"We were bottom of the league. England were playing Greece at Old Trafford the next day, we all watched the game together and from then it clicked and we have never looked back.

"Reaching the play-offs was a success and although we never made the next stage, we managed it in the end.

"We lost play-offs at the semi-finals stages, but the fact we kept getting there showed what a winning attitude we had at the club.''

Now it's about restoring that winning attitude.

The victory over Chesterfield a fortnight ago was Pool's first since December 10.

That run of results dumped them in a relegation scrap, but Barron is sure the much-lauded spirit at Victoria Park will go a long way to securing success.

"There's a great spirit at the club among the players and it was Chris who started it all off,'' he said.

"Everything we have done since was started by him.

"He brought in players who had character, good people in the dressing room - Gordon Watson, Tommy Widdrington, Ritchie Humphreys - players who had played at a higher level, and most of his signings have been part of our success.!"

Read more about Hartlepool here.