FOR 29-year-old striker Mark Cullen, a move to Hartlepool United is not just the latest step in his career. It's a return home.

Born in Ashington and produced by Newcastle United, Cullen has spent the majority of his playing career away from the North-East.

“I’ve been living down in Preston for a good few years now.

"My wife and kids are still down there but to have the rest of my family up so close, it’s been real nice to see them a lot more than what I have done over the last ten years or whatever I’ve been playing for so it’s always nice to get back and see the family."

Hull City, Luton Town, Blackpool and Port Vale have all been the beneficiaries of his services over the years. It was with Luton Town where he made a name for himself in, what was, the Conference at the time. Cullen's contribution helped the Hatters to sealing promotion as Champions finishing the season as runaway winners with 101 points.

A 14 goal haul for Luton saw Cullen jump up the division once again with Blackpool in 2015. However, he quickly found himself back in League Two after the Tangerines were relegated.

It was a prolific spell with Blackpool that was tinged with long-term injury. In a bid to get back amongst the goals, a move to Port Vale followed but he found game time hard to come by.

“At Port Vale, it was frustrating really. Didn’t play as much as I want which is why, at the end of the season, I didn’t get a new contract. But these things happen in football and it’s all about how you bounce back and I’m looking to have a successful time here.

“I’ve been around long enough now. I kind of knew it was coming anyway so it wasn’t a surprise or a shock to me but that’s not an easy situation especially in the lower leagues.

"You’ve got bills to pay. We don’t earn millions of pounds, we’ve got bills to pay, we’ve got families to provide for so to get told that you’re out of a job and you’ve got to go and find another one otherwise you’re not getting any money, it’s tough.

"It can be panicking but there’s that many players out of contract as well these days, it’s not an easy position to be in at all."

Following a short trial period, the striker moved to sign a permanent deal at Victoria Park.

Plenty of charismatic players have come and gone at Hartlepool United. All with their own unique stamp on the team and the dressing room. Cullen considers himself to be the joker and the lively character of the squad, even despite his short time at the club. But fair to say he's enjoying that role.

Cullen said: “It’s really good so far to be fair. I knew quite a few of the lads already, playing against them, playing with them over the years so it was an easy thing for me to settle in and I’m enjoying it.

“It’s just the character I am really. I like to have a laugh with the lads and when we get out onto the pitch, we train properly. I think it’s good. At the end of the day, we’re playing football for a living. If you can’t enjoy that and come into work with a smile on your face then you’re doing something wrong aren’t you.

“The older I get, the more experience you get and you see different situations. I think if something goes against you, you get injured or you get beat or whatever it might be, if you come in and you let it stew on you for a couple of days and even the weeks after then it doesn’t benefit you at all.

"Obviously if you get beat or whatever, you look at what you can do better but you’ve always got to come in with a new lease of life I think and look at the next game with positivity and how you can improve. If you dwell on it, it’s only going to work against you."

Cullen's outlook on football and life has clearly come from years of experiencing ups and downs. For a squad like Pools, that could be invaluable given their fresh status in the Football League.

However, he doesn't just plan on being a figurehead in the changing room and he wants to do his talking on the pitch.

“I just want to play as much as I can and score as many goals as I can. It’s not rocket science what I want to do really. I just want to play football and score goals and obviously help the team and the club and see how we get on.

“Any promoted team, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been promoted from the National League or you’ve been promoted from the Championship, you want to try and stabilise yourself in the next league above. I think that’s fair enough but I think League Two can be anything as a league.

"If you put a good run of results together then you can be right up there but equally if you put bad results together, you can be right down there. It’s a real mixed bag as a division on a whole. We can go into every game with positivity and looking to win these games and just see how we get on."