SAM COLLINS insists it’s business as usual at Hartlepool United.

Following the sacking of Craig Hignett on Sunday, the club’s under-21s coach and former skipper and assistant boss, has stepped up to the role of caretaker manager.

He has taken training at the club’s Maiden Castle base in Durham this week, as he looks to get the side back on track after back to back 1-0 defeats.

Pools take on Stevenage at The Northern Gas and Power Stadium on Saturday, with chairman Gary Coxall stepping up the search for the club’s new boss.

Dave Jones, the former Wolves, Cardiff, Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday manager, remains odds-on favourite amid reports he is to be interviewed today.

Collins, however, is just getting on with the task of keeping the player focused for the weekend.

Speaking to The Northern Echo this morning, Wednesday, at the club’s regular pre-match press conference, Collins admitted: “It’s been, for me included, a different week.

"I heard the news and spoke to the owner and chief exec and they asked me to take over again.

“It’s about planning the week and getting things organised to help the lads. That’s the most important thing - to make sure everything is covered in terms of what the lads need for the weekend’s game.

“I spoke to the players on Monday and said I didn’t know if this was going to be for a week, a day, a game, or it might be forever, you just don’t know.

"I told them I would make sure that come Saturday they will be prepared and ready for the game and they will be.’’