FOR Brad Walker – and Hartlepool United as a club – the season hasn’t quite gone to plan; but both are now showing signs of a much-needed revival.

Pools have been lumbering at the bottom of the table all season, looking like relegation fodder without as much as a sign of a fight.

Walker, on the back of an impressive breakthrough campaign last time out, has struggled with second season syndrome.

Overplayed at the start of the season as he struggled, Walker needed to be taken out of the firing line.

And now, both Walker and Pools have improved and impressed.

Back to back away wins for Pools have coincided with the midfielder’s return to the side. And, while no-one is solely crediting Walker for Pools’ revival, they go into today’s home game with Mansfield full of hope.

The gap to safety is down to four points ahead of successive home outings. Walker has settled well into a tight three-man central midfield in a 3-5-2 set-up.

And he’s proving himself to boss Ronnie Moore, who said: "I don't know Brad all that well. I had never seen him play before I came here.

"I hear an awful lot about what he has been and what he was but he looked a bit off the pace when I came in, considering his call-ups to the England training camps.

"He was a young kid that had an awful lot of games, he just looks now like he has got his appetite back.

"I have not seen in training anything that made me think 'wow, we have to be playing Brad every week' – but I have seen a massive change in him.

"He wants to feel loved, wanted and feel part and parcel of playing in the first team.

"Because he hasn't been, that has affected him deep down, I think.

"He just lost a bit of confidence, now we have shown that trust in him and put him in there, I am hopeful he has benefitted.

"He has shown us in spells that he can play.’’

Moore put Walker in the side last Saturday for his first start since back in December. And, while he’s showed signs of being rusty, his match fitness was impressive at Oxford on Tuesday.

The boss added: "The other day, he almost got through a few times. He has a great energy and can smack the ball so well.

"He should really be getting ten goals a season, if he is a regular in the first team because of the ability he has got.

"I think he is feeling a lot better in himself now and being in the first team will only benefit him and us."

Pools have reduced ticket prices for today to £10 standing and £12 seats to engineer a bigger crowd and increased atmosphere inside Victoria Park.

And Moore is sure that a home win today will heap the pressure on their relegation rivals.

“Other teams now have that fear factor which they’ve not had and how to they handle it. The crowd has been good to us and if we can get it down to one, then crowds can turn on their side and do us a favour,’’ he said.

“We win, we can only do our bit, we’ve said that all along and as long as we do it we will come off one day and it’s a point and less. We are disappointed with results the other night and others won – if you said Tranmere and Carlisle would both win away, no I didn’t see it coming.

“I felt coming off the other night, without looking, we could be too close and now it’s four, but others teams are in the pack now.

“Home form has been good, much improved and it’s a pity we conceded at the end last time. If we slip up then the hope goes again doesn’t it.

“Nobody in the bottom four or five can afford to slip up as games are running out, we have to win, we have to go for wins and can’t sit back.

“We have to win Saturday, do it and who knows where it takes us.’’

Tickets are available from the club ticket office and on the turnstiles today.