IAN MOORE insists there is no place for complacency or falling standards at Hartlepool United.
And the striker can cite his own game as an example.
A week after a disappointing display against Swindon, Moore was expecting to be dropped for the trip to Leyton Orient seven days ago.
Instead, he kept his place and was rewarded with two goals in what boss Danny Wilson believes was his side's best display of the season so far.
After seeing off leaders Orient last week, Pools today entertain Walsall, who sit bottom of League One, after pipping Pools to the League Two title last season.
Moore insisted: "In this league anyone can defeat anyone but we know if we are on our game then we are very hard to beat.
"We will always create chances against whoever we are playing.
"It is important to get in the mindset that we have to be on our game no matter who we are playing.
"We played well against Leeds and Orient when they were top but it is equally important, if not more so, to have that same attitude when you come up against the so-called lesser sides.
"Sometimes you can get complacent but, I know it is a cliche, but you have to take each game as it comes. We always go out to get three points regardless of who we play.''
The summer signing from Leeds admitted: "Against Swindon, I had an absolute nightmare, the gaffer was quite right to hook me at half-time.
"I spoke to the boss in midweek before the Orient game and I told him I was desperate to play on Saturday and make up for it.
"So it was great he gave me the jersey and to get a couple of goals was a bonus.''
Moore opened and completed the scoring last Saturday to make it four for the season and 96 career goals for the front man who has twice moved for £1m.
"The first one the keeper got his finger-tips to and I though the chance had gone, I was lucky because it bounced in front of me and I managed to tuck it away,'' he recalled.
"For the second goal I just managed to get on the end of a great move. The ball from Gary Liddle was tremendous and I was just happy that I could make a good finish.
"I went to the right wing late on and I managed to get inside and make a run and Gary picked me out, it was a great move. That goal really killed them off.''
Liddle has impressed in a new division this campaign, just a year after Pools signed him from Middlesbrough.
While Moore has only played with last season's joint player of the year for seven games in League One, he is a fan.
"I didn't know much about Gary before I came here but ever since I have been at the club he has impressed me,'' he admitted. "He has been superb in every game we have played.
"In him and James Brown we have two of the best players in the division for their age.
They are superb players and hopefully we can keep hold of them for as long as possbile.
"You look at Gary and he is out there back-heeling it past the Orient midfielders when it is 1-0, it is superb, and when you have young players with the confidence to do that, it spread through the whole team."
Today's match programme is a commemorative issue looking back on ten years of IOR ownership at Victoria Park.
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