HARTLEPOOL UNITED will hope to use their home cup tie to their advantage when taking on Coventry City in the FA Cup second round tomorrow.

Colin Cooper’s side are currently enjoying a good home stretch this year and an extension to wins at Victoria Park would only serve to add to the optimism of a good cup run as they face-off against the Sky Blues tomorrow.

Hartlepool progressed through to the second round after overcoming a resilient Notts County side in a 3-2 win, but despite bagging three in that game, they have failed to find the net in their previous two league games.

Pools go into this game coming off the back of a 0-0 draw with Portsmouth which saw Cooper’s side fail to convert any chances for the second game in a row, but Cooper is not too worried about that statistic.

“It was a little frustrating because we didn’t win especially since we’ve had such a good run at home but also we didn’t lose,” he said. “It’s not a cliche but I do keep saying that the first port of call in any football match is to make sure you don’t lose.

“I think both teams wanted to win, they were certainly conscious that they didn’t want to lose, I said before the game that they would be organised and they would be disciplined.”

The last time these two teams met was last season in League One, with Coventry doing the double over Pools, winning 5-0 and 1-0. The two teams have met on seven occasions in the past with Coventry taking four games and scoring 18 goals in the process, whereas Pools are tailing behind with nine goals and three wins from the seven fixtures.

Tomorrow’s game comes off the back of a 3-1 victory away to MK Dons, a good confidence booster as the team fell at home both times to Rotherham 3-0 and Tranmere 5-1 in their previous fixtures before that.

Despite the goalless draw against Pompey and a 1-0 defeat away to Bury last week, Cooper insists the mood in camp is good.

“The mood’s fine,” said Cooper. “We’re conscious of results and the way things are but before that we beat Notts County, we beat Dagenham, we beat Northampton so you have to take everything into context.”

“As I keep saying nothing’s going to be perfect, we’re trying very hard. Bury away was disappointing, we were disappointed not to beat Portsmouth at home but not in what we were trying to do on the day.”