NEALE COOPER wants to make sure all Hartlepool United's hard work is not thrown away before the turn of the year.

Prior to last week's crushing defeat at Queens Park Rangers, Pool had occupied a top six place for most of their first season back in Division Two.

Cooper, whose side now sit in tenth spot, knows that with two home games against fellow promotion hopefuls next on the list there is every chance his side can start 2004 in the perfect position.

Pool face fifth-placed Colchester United today then fourth-placed Barnsley on Boxing Day at Victoria Park - a ground where they have not lost a League game for 27 matches.

Cooper, in his first season in charge, admits that he would be frustrated if his team failed to build on a promising start by earning a play-off place.

"I would be disappointed if we weren't among them," said Cooper, whose side then go to struggling Oldham on December 28. "If you look at the first ten games we had 15 points, we had a blip but then came good again. We would like to keep progressing and we feel we could be in there.

"But I haven't really set targets since I came here. Maybe you look at a run of matches and say 'we should be three games unbeaten' but that's that.

"When I came here it was a new league for me and it was a new league for the players so we couldn't set targets.

"But we have got two big games coming up. Colchester are fifth and I know that this is a busy period and a tough period for us. But I look at the wider picture and this can be a good period for us if we perform."

Pool will have central midfielder Mark Tinkler available again after missing last week's defeat at Loftus Road through suspension.

That is likely to mean loan signing Chris Shuker is switched to the right wing, with Ritchie Humphreys moving to his preferred left.

Shuker, at Pool for a month from Manchester City, impressed against QPR. But Cooper is hoping to see more from the 21-year-old, who has been told he will not be getting a new contract by City boss Kevin Keegan.

"Chris is very lively," said the Pool chief, who also has Danny Byrne on a temporary deal from Manchester United. "He started well at QPR and it's just good to know that he can play on either wing.

"For now it's just a loan deal and we'll see. We want him to show us over the time he has with us that he deserves a longer deal.

"I think Danny has found it a little bit tougher because to come from the Premier League reserves to Division Two he'll find it's a lot different."

Meanwhile, striker Jermaine Easter has followed full-back Mark Robinson to UniBond League Spennymoor United.

Easter is the seventh player, including Kevin Henderson, who has signed a permanent deal at Carlisle, to have been allowed to go out on loan.

And the former Welsh youth international - along with Adam Boyd, Paul Arnison, Marcus Richardson and Anthony Williams - has been told to prove his worth by Cooper.

The Scot said: "There's no point any of these boys being with me and just waiting in the wings.

"They are better off out and about and playing football.

"They are not out of my plans and they are not in them.

"If they go out and get star reviews for the clubs they are with - which they should be doing in the Third Division and lower - then I will bring them back and have a look.

"But a number of them have had their chances under me and they have not taken them. But we will continue to monitor them."

Read more about Hartlepool here.