THE Easter programme is always regarded as a time when the outcome of a club’s season is shaped.

And, for Hartlepool United, this weekend is no different. A trip to Crewe today and a home encounter with Scunthorpe on Monday is on the agenda for Chris Turner’s side.

Within reaching distance of the drop zone, a minimum four-point haul come Monday evening would go a long way to securing their place in League One for next season.

If they emerge winless, the remaining weeks of the season will be uneasy, right up to the final game of the season at Bristol Rovers on May 2.

Pools went to Crewe on Easter Saturday last year, lost 3-1 but beat Yeovil at home two days later.

When Pools were relegated three years ago, losses to Bristol City and MK Dons proved pivotal with three games left.

There are just three games remaining after Monday and, on the back of last week’s win over Hereford, Sam Collins can’t underestimate the importance of three-point hauls at this stage of the season.

“They are nervy games but you’ve just got to try to be strong mentally and keep going,’’ he said after scoring his first goal of the season last weekend.

“All that mattered was winning.

We’ve got a pretty good idea of what we might need to survive and the quicker we get there the better.

“We’ve probably played a lot better in the couple of games before Hereford but it worked out differently.

“We thought we could get a bit of a gap with a win and quite a few of the results went our way as well, which is an added bonus.

“It was important to win after losing the last five.

“The more it goes on, the more nervous you get as a team and we needed to put a stop to that as soon as we could.’’ Pools could be without top scorer Joel Porter at Gresty Road this afternoon. The striker is suffering from a groin strain and he could be rested to ensure his availability on Monday.

That would mean an allloan strike force of Keigan Parker and Daniel Nardiello against the team two points and four places behind Pools.

“I think it will be nervy again at Crewe,’’ reflected Collins. “They are going to be edgy but hopefully it might give us a bit of confidence.

“To be fair, ever since they beat us at home they have gone on a great run because they were in big trouble then.

“It will be a tough game. Noone really likes going to play there but hopefully we can get the same result as we did last weekend, we’ll take that.

“We want the points as soon as possible. We’ve been saying that since ten games ago really.

“We had a slight feeling we were getting dragged that way a little bit.

“We’ve been too hit and miss really. Obviously we have good weeks and bad weeks, and when you lose five games on the trot it’s not a good time of year to be doing that.

“We spoke before about how we need to get a couple of wins and hopefully we can get a couple more.

“What kept us up last year was probably three wins in a week and we are hoping that we can repeat that now.’’