HARTLEPOOL United's Ritchie Humphreys last night revealed he is determined to make sure his first taste of an end-of-season shoot-out is a sweet one.

The 24-year-old, who has had spells with five different clubs, has played in every division but he has never had to prepare for the pressures of a play-off campaign.

And while Humphreys, a free signing last summer, has not been involved in either of Pool's previous two unsuccessful showdowns, he has talked it through with his teammates.

"It's my first time and I'm really looking forward to it," said the former Sheffield Wednesday man who will line up for the first leg against Cheltenham this afternoon.

"All of the lads have been discussing what's happened in previous years and I've just had to listen really.

"We can't be thinking abut finals in Cardiff yet because we have two tough games and hopefully we can do a job to go through.

"Cheltenham are a good, strong, organised side and we know what we are going to get from them."

Steve Cotterrill's Robins have beaten Pool twice - 3-0, at Whaddon Road and 1-0 at Victoria Park - during the current campaign and Humphreys knows his team are going to have to beware.

But Humphreys, who will line up in midfield this afternoon, is adamant that Chris Turner's men deserved to claim something from both of those matches.

He said: "We have been beaten twice, but we should have beaten them here and we should have got something away.

"But they are out of the window now and after five straight wins I think we're the ones going in with confidence.

"They're going to be two tough games but I think we have to play as we have been doing at home and score a few goals.

"We can't be too cavalier and end up losing the first game."

Pool's players go into the clash in the right frame of mind after successive wins over Oxford, Plymouth, Halifax, Swansea and Exeter. But before those the squad were kicking themselves for not claiming a top-three spot.

Had that been achieved Turner's men would already be on their holidays knowing they would be playing Second Division football next season.

Humphreys admits the Pool squad should not have had to battle through a further three matches to clinch promotion.

"I think we have a squad that should have challenged for an automatic spot," he said.

"When I came I was impressed with the squad and we've had a couple more additions since, like Flash (Gordon Watson), Paul Smith and Jamie Coppinger. The quality has come in and we've done really well.

"So we're not disappointed that we have not finished third; we are just delighted that we have finished seventh.

"We have gone from a bottom of the League side in November to a play-off spot and I think that's a good achievement.

"After we lost here to Macclesfield everyone was saying we had blown it but we knew that if we won all five we would be waiting in the wings if one team dropped out.

"Fortunately one did and we were able to keep up the good form and the 7-1 win over Swansea was evidence that we were full of confidence."

Humphreys, meanwhile, sympathised with Newcastle United winger Jamie Coppinger, who will be missing today after his three-month loan spell at Pool came to an end last week.

Coppinger made his last appearance in a blue and white shirt at Exeter last Saturday when he was replaced by Adam Boyd on the right.

And Humphreys said: "I'm really disappointed for Copps because he loves it here and he really feels part of it.

"But we can cope. Other lads have had to drop out during the run up to the end of the season through injury and they have been replaced by someone.

"So we have a good squad and whoever plays is going to do a good job - we know that.

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