HARTLEPOOL United are looking to get back to winning ways this afternoon when bottom of the league Oldham Athletic come to the Suit Direct Stadium.

Pools lost on Boxing Day 3-2 to Mansfield having been two goals up during the game. It was the first loss under manager Graeme Lee.

However, Pools return to home soil this weekend’s game where they’ve lost just one game this season.

Oldham have been through the mill this season with financial problems and rising tensions between the club and the fanbase due to the way the club has been run. Despite their problems on and off the pitch, Lee is well aware they need to be at their best before another two home games in the cup.

He said: “We all want an exciting time of the year. We’ve got a massive game. We’ll be giving everything we can and the focus, first and foremost, is Oldham. It’s a tough test.

“We all want to get on the pitch. We’ve been doing the work from the Mansfield game and it’s all about tomorrow really before we focus on the next two games.

“There’s not one easy game in this league.

“We’ve got to focus. We’ve done all our prep on Oldham and what they can offer but we’ve got to focus on us. We’ve got to be at our game. Every single player has got to be on their game.

“We can’t have anyone switching off. If we are on our game then we’ll give ourself a great chance of winning the game.”

Gavan Holohan has been gradually returning to full fitness and featured in the second half of against Mansfield alongside Tyler Burey, who made his first appearance for the club since September. Pools have gone on to submit a request to Millwall to have his loan extended until the end of the season.

Regarding Holohan, the manager says he is in his thoughts ahead of the game.

Lee continued: “They are all training at a good standard. There has been areas that I’ve looked at, all different players who can improve and do certain things.

“Gav came on and impacted the game. I’ve seen what he can do and hopefully he will be in the starting line-up very soon.”