HARTLEPOOL United boss Chris Turner last night reflected on his side's injury woes and admitted: "It's a nightmare.''

Turner leads Pool into action with York at Victoria Park with seven players out through injury and illness.

He has snapped up Middlesbrough defender Steve Baker on loan to plug the gaps in defence and he will start in the back line this afternoon.

Turner was hoping to have Baker and defender Graeme Lee in tandem this afternoon before Lee suffered cruciate ligament damage in training on Tuesday. He is expected to be out for the season.

The Pool boss said: "Someone asked me this week what we are doing different from last season. But we are not doing anything different, the only difference is that two players who regularly featured in that team are out.

"It is no disrespect to anyone in the side, but those players (Lee and Micky Barron) are very influential.

"I have seven players unavailable for the York game and if you take seven players out of any team then you are left short. That's why I have brought Steve Baker in.

"James Sharp has been excellent considering he has come from southern league football, but at the moment we are not in a situation where someone can be learning the ropes.

"But sitting out and watching on the sidelines is part of his learning curve.

"Tomorrow we have someone coming in at the back who has not played with the rest of the defence, so we will have to see what happens.

"We started the season without Gary Strodder, then he comes back and Barry Ferguson is injured. Paul Arnison was tried in there but it didn't work, and now we have Steve.''

Turner added: "Lee Fitzpatrick was getting going and playing really well and then he gets an injury through no fault of his own and hasn't trained for two weeks.

"Martin Hollund played the majority of last season and he is missing as well. It's not just about other players coming in, but about forming an understanding with the rest of the team.''

Turner was fuming after seeing his side lose a 3-1 advantage at Mansfield last week but has exonerated his strikers from blame and admitted: "There's no criticism of the team going forward. We have been playing some super football with the strikers in the last three or four games.

"The front two are doing their job. I know Tony Lormor will score 12 to 15 goals this season and Kevin Henderson can do the same as well - his goals-per-game record is very good. If they can get 25-30 goals between them, then we are well on the way.''

The Pool chief is confident of a good response to last week's heartache.

"That was a freak result - every team gets them and it was our turn,'' he said. "The only positive thing was that going forward we looked very good.

"It was soul destroying to lose like that but we didn't get walloped 4-0 and look poor. We have worked on things this week and I am sure we will not get that sort of thing happening again."

And after throwing away five points by giving away late goals in consecutive games, Turner joked: "If we are in front with 20 minutes to go, expect to see me walking out and going home!''

l A week after Pool threw away a three-goal lead at Mansfield, Norwegian side Brann Bergen, who have close links with Pool through owners IOR Ltd, did the same on Thursday.

Brann were coasting in the first round of the UEFA Cup against Swiss side Basel, leading 4-1. But the visitors netted three times in the closing stages to level the tie at 4-4 and win 7-6 on aggregate