Hartlepool United captain Luke Waterfall makes bold claim about current Pools squad

The 34-year-old skippered both Lincoln and Grimsby to promotion from the National League and the experienced defender is hoping he can repeat the feat a third time in the North East.

Certainly, it hasn't been all plain sailing for the veteran, who was sent off twice in his first four appearances this season and was criticised for some of his performances towards the beginning of the campaign.

However, like a lot of his teammates, Waterfall has started to get back to his best under Lennie Lawrence, starting the last eight league games in a row and helping Pools keep four clean sheets.

Waterfall's display in the win over Oldham last time out was perhaps his best since signing for Pools last January, with the skipper heading home his first goal of the season and producing a monumental defensive showing.

Waterfall kept veteran frontman James Norwood, who has scored eight times in 16 games this term, and Josh Stones, who has since signed for leaders York for a rumoured £350,000, quiet all afternoon as Pools closed in on the play-off places.

When Lawrence replaced outspoken former boss Darren Sarll in October, Pools were closer to the relegation zone than the top seven.

An impressive run of five wins and five draws in their last 12 matches has moved Pools to within three points of the play-off places while a number of important players who struggled under Sarll - Adam Campbell, David Ferguson, Mani Dieseruvwe and Anthony Mancini in particular - are beginning to hit their stride.

With a run of relatively favourable matches now on the horizon - all of their next six games are against sides in the bottom half - Pools are starting to look like genuine promotion contenders.

Waterfall is confident his side have what it takes following their excellent recent form.

"It's up there with one of the best groups," he said.

"This team has a lot of the qualities and characteristics we had at Lincoln and Grimsby.

"You saw a lot of grit and determination in that New Year's Day performance - if you don't have that, you won't get anywhere in this league.

"Our forwards are doing really well - I thought Anthony Mancini had one of his best games against Oldham - and we've been showing a lot of fight to keep the ball out of our net as well.

"That doesn't just come from the back four, it comes from everybody else in the team too. We defend as a team really well.

"At the moment it looks like we've got a lot of those key ingredients, it's about whether we can maintain that for the rest of the season now."