Hartlepool United's ex-Newcastle, Gateshead keeper Adam Bartlett joins Middlesbrough.

The 31-year-old asked to be released from his current employment and Pools agreed to terminate his contract.

Bartlett has made no secret of his desire to go into full-time coaching and was linked with a move away from the Northern Gas & Power Stadium last summer, only to sign a new one-year deal.

Now, he has made the move and takes on a full-time coaching post in Middlesbrough’s famed Academy at Rockliffe.

Bartlett's time at Pools has come to a disappointing end, having lost the keeper's gloves to on-loan Joe Fryer.

When number one choice Trevor Carson suffered a season-ending shoulder problem, his highly-respected understudy was expected to be between the sticks for the remainder of the programme.

The former Newcastle goalkeeper started the first seven matches of 2017, keeping a clean sheet in the first match of the Dave Jones era, the 2-0 victory over Stevenage.

But the new manager then brought in Fryer on loan, ironically from Middlesbrough, for the rest of the campaign to put pressure on Bartlett.

And after conceding four goals in the defeat at Mansfield, he lost his place for the match at Luton and Fryer has played the last eight matches.

Bartlett joined Pools in the summer of 2015, an inspired signing by then boss Ronnie Moore after the goalie was surprisingly released by Gateshead.

He was soon required after Carson was injured on the eve of the season and he impressed in a 15-game sequence, keeping three clean sheets in the first four matches, including a man-of-the-match display in the shock EFL Cup win at Fleetwood.

A statement on the Pools website said: "Everybody at the club would like to wish him all the very best in his new career."