HARTLEPOOL United caretaker boss Antony Sweeney says his players are now playing to impress the new manager effectively ruling himself out of taking the job on a permanent basis.

Sweeney has been in charge of six matches and will take the side to Port Vale tomorrow in their latest League Two.

Since Dave Challinor’s departure, the club have decided to take their time in the search for a new manager but have been conducting interviews with potential managerial candidates this week.

There’s been no timescale on when the appointment will be made but Sweeney has suggested that it won’t be him taking the role permanently and that’s something the players need to be thinking about.

The 38-year-old interim boss told BBC Radio Tees Sport: “The numbers 11 or whatever 18 that is picked, that’s their opportunity to stake a claim now.

“We’re not daft that someone else will be sitting here in the not too distant future so if it was me as a player and I’ve got that opportunity on Saturday, I’d think the chances are that the new manager is going to be watching.

“I want to be putting in a performance and I want to be starting in whatever team he picks, whatever game that is.”

Pools have lost four games in a row in League Two in a patch of form that’s seen them slip into the bottom half of the table down to 15th place.

Sweeney admits the players are lacking in confidence but has rallied the squad and told the players that they can't afford to feel sorry for themselves.

“You can sense the players have had a knock, that’s only natural” Sweeney added.

“We had a good start to the season in terms of the points we picked up and obviously heavily reliant on the home form.

“We’ve had a wobble and we’ve played some good sides within that so there is mitigating circumstances towards some of those results, you wouldn’t be human if it didn’t affect you in any sort of way.

“But we’ve got to show a little bit of resilience and a little bit of character because if we are honest with ourselves, before the season started, we assessed that this might be the case at some point in the season.

“Yes we are experienced in it now but we’ve got to come through it pretty quickly.”