ANTONY SWEENEY, who continues to impress as Hartlepool United manager, will again be in charge this evening.

Pools take on Solihull Moors at Victoria Park, with the caretaker boss looking to make it five games without defeat since being asked to stand in.

Dave Challinor remains the most likely candidate for the job, but Sweeney’s outlook has enabled the club’s hierarchy to take their time over the decision.

Promotion remains the aim and ambition of chairman Raj Singh and Sweeney has made his mark both on the training pitch and how he and right-hand man Ian McGuckin have conducted themselves.

Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Notts County followed three successive victories and the first-half performance was widely regarded as one of Pools’ best in a long time.

Sweeney has made a few tweaks to the set-up used by former boss Craig Hignett, with the switch to four at the back the most glaring one.

But he has engineered a more effective unit of late, with both Nicke Kabamba and Luke James scoring, while they have remained solid and hard-working across the back and midfield.

“We were a little disappointed at the weekend, which shows how far we have come. The game plan and executing it was near perfect,’’ admitted Sweeney, speaking to the club website.

“We had a good pressing line which allowed Notts to play football in areas which wouldn’t hurt us and credit to the lads for carrying out the game plan. I felt they were excellent.

“It felt like a proper football match.’’

Gavan Holohan and Luke James were on target at Meadow Lane, the latter bagging his first goal of the season as he turned 25.

Sweeney added: “We can’t carry players, with or without the ball and Gav is good at both. He felt hard done by when he wasn’t in the side and maybe that shows the strength of the squad.

“The finish for Luke, opening his body up, has been down to repetition and he’s been working after training for ten minutes here and there and I believe those ten minutes add up.’’

Pools retained a positive outlook throughout the game, while they were pegged back in the second half as Notts stepped u their own performance.

Sweeney, who will make a late call on the availability of Gime Toure after the top scorer had a hand operation last week, added: “It would have been easy to shut up shop, but we wanted to be a threat by keeping two up top and even throw Luke Williams on at the end, we still wanted to go and win it and we tried.’’

Sweeney and his players were on the end of a firm show of support from the away fans on Saturday, but while it seemed it was a farewell at the time, he gets another chance to impress tonight.

Ha admitted: “It was a nice reception at the end. They have been good for me this tenure of four games, but the best part of 14 years so I can’t thank the crowd enough.

“We put the players into a shape and structure who we feel can compete and games and they deserve the praise.’’