AROUND 2,000 travelling fans will head for Bootham Crescent today in the hope of witnessing Hartlepool United take another step towards preserving Football League status for a further year.

But as well as acknowledging the supporters turning out in force in a bid to keep Pools out of the Conference trapdoor come May 2, Ronnie Moore has singled out somebody who could prove a more unlikely saviour.

When Moore accepted the unenviable task of turning Hartlepool around in December, he did so under the impression that there was to be a takeover and that chairman Ken Hodcroft would no longer be around.

But after the breakdown of a deal with TMH 2014 – the proposed new owners until existing owners IOR pulled the plug amid fears that it was not in the best interests of the club – Moore had to work with the long-serving chairman he thought was on his way out.

Hodcroft, who was the subject of severe criticism from the terraces earlier in the campaign, has given the manager the freedom to tinker with the squad in the best way he could and sanctioned a number of deals.

And former Tranmere boss Moore, who has taken Hartlepool to third from bottom with five matches remaining, said: “I’m now at a club where no one interferes, you are allowed to get on with the job and some of the backing I have had from the chairman here has been immense. With loans, everything I have asked for has been there, which has been nice.

“I can only speak as I find people and since I have been at the club the chairman has been fantastic with me.

“Whatever I have needed we have got. We have got loans in no problem. I don’t know too much of what has gone on in the past. Without Ken this club would have been in a dire situation. He could easily have left and let somebody else take the reins.”

Moore gambled on taking on the role at Pools when he did because he feared a chance might not arise again having been sacked by Tranmere 12 months ago because of a breach in betting rules.

Ironically Hartlepool have leapfrogged Tranmere, who are now occupying the second and final relegation spot in League Two. The relegation fight is far from won, but the experienced former Rotherham coach admits he did have reservations about taking over at Victoria Park.

Moore said: “I was just glad to be working again. I did think twice though.”

He has since seen Hartlepool slowly turn things around and the town’s football fans have got well and truly behind the push, with more than 5,000 attending the last two home dates. Moore was astounded to learn there will be 2,000 travelling down to York, who sit five points above them after their own revival.

“Hartlepool was never a place you would go to as a manager and be frightened because the crowd were brilliant,” said Moore, who is unlikely to have striker Jordan Hugill available after suffering a detached retina against Southend on Monday.

“It was the freezing cold nights that really got me, that I was scared of as a player and manager!

“When you are here, the will to get out of the mess we are in has been unbelievable. They have had umpteen opportunities to moan and groan, they have as well, we have had ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ from behind the dug-outs. They haven’t been at times.

“As a player and manager. I don’t think anyone liked coming here because it was a wind machine at the Vic. It’s the first time I have been here over the years that I have not needed a big overcoat. That puts a lot of teams off.

“They have always had good players here but the crowd has never stuck out in my mind. I had no idea that the passion the crowd has was there. I was here once in every season so you don’t get it. When you are here every other week, you do get to know the crowd and the desire. Without the drive and that belief from them that has come through in the side.

“The will to stay in the Football League you feel from the supporters. I wasn’t sure that we were getting it from the players. I said a couple of weeks ago I thought about bringing a couple of fans in to speak to the players. But the penny has dropped. It’s got to a stage where what seemed impossible is now possible.”