RONNIE Moore admits attracting players to the North-East is proving a problem in his search for a new striker.

The Hartlepool United boss has so far drawn a blank in his attempts to add to his attacking options ahead of tomorrow’s home game with Exeter.

Loan signing Ellis Harrison won’t play because of a leg injury suffered last weekend, but Billy Paynter is back in contention after Achilles trouble.

Pools were hoping to land Luke James on loan from Peterborough last week, but a change in the proposed deal put that on hold and Moore said at this morning’s press conference: “Luke James? Where did you get that one from? I don’t know anything about that…. We’ve been trying to get a striker in, no doubt about that. We have bids in for three players, disappointing for us they’ve been turned down.

“A couple want to go south instead of coming to the north, so that’s disappointing.’’

One of his targets, Oldham striker Rhys Murphy looks set to sign for Crawley, while he is still chasing other targets.

He added: “We try, we look. It’s not like the chairman isn’t doing anything about it. We’ve been all over the place looking, me, Sam (Collins), the coaching staff.

“Supporters want us to sign someone, but it’s got to be the right one and you can’t dive in for the sake of diving in. We’ve tried and we keep trying.’’

Meanwhile, midfielder Brad Walker looks set for a further chance to impress Wolves.

He played for their Under-21s on Monday night and boss Kenny Jackett said: “We’ll probably be inviting him back again.

“He had a good game, showed a good passing range I felt, both short and long."

“He did have two days training with us some weeks ago.

“We obviously wanted to follow up that with a game and we’ve been waiting for the right game to put him in.”