BEFORE Christmas, Neale Cooper was sick of saying the same thing after each away game ended in defeat.

Now he's fed up of again sounding like a broken record as Pool prepare for tomorrow's game at play-off rivals Bradford City.

Cooper is experiencing the worst run of his time at Victoria Park - four successive defeats. Three of those have been down to a 1-0 scoreline, the other a bizarre 6-4 reverse to Wrexham.

Cooper admitted: "We have been playing well and working extremely hard. Wrexham was a one-off. Tranmere were delighted with the win last week, it was a big result for them.

"But I cannot complain about the way we have been playing. All we need is a wee bit of luck.

"A change in fortunes is all we need, because as we know things haven't been going for us of late.

"We're not getting things going in our favour and we need that luck to turn around.''

Cooper has injured trio Hugh Robertson, Mark Tinkler and Chris Westwood available tomorrow and they will travel to Valley Parade.

"Hugh has only been playing at 60 per cent recently,'' said Cooper. "He came back but you could see his foot was still troubling him.

"But he's worked hard in training to get his fitness levels back and he says his foot isn't troubling him.''

Cooper has admitted he is likely to take his time before deciding if former Newcastle and England defender Steve Howey has a future at Victoria Park.

Howey has been on trial at Pool and this week played in a full-scale practice match.

Cooper, who has until next Thursday's transfer deadline to make a decision, said: "Steve came in and we'll probably take another week to have a good look and see what the position is.

"He's not match fit but he's working at it and he's got the experience. He was a great player and we'll see what happens."

Pool's youth team fly to the USA today to take part in the Dallas Cup. After winning the under-19 event last year, they have been promoted to the Supergroup where they will face Tigres of Mexico, Jubilo Iwata of Japan and So Cal United of California in Group A.

Paul Stephenson's team play their first game on Sunday against Jubio Iwata.

* Pool's former youth and reserve team coach Kenny Sutheran has died after illness.

Read more about Hartlepool here.