Hartlepool United caretaker Antony Sweeney on the delicate balancing act between League Two, Papa John's Trophy and FA Cup scheduling ahead of Sheffield Wednesday and Lincoln City games

Antony Sweeney remains conflicted about Hartlepool United’s break from League Two action as Pools prepare for their Papa John’s Trophy second round tie.
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Sweeney will take charge as Pools head to Hillsborough tonight to take on Sheffield Wednesday before travelling to another League One side in Lincoln City for the FA Cup on Saturday.

It means Pools will have to sit on their fifth straight League Two defeat at Port Vale for 10 days until they welcome Rochdale to the Suit Direct Stadium next week.

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But with the league form having tailed off recently, competing on two cup fronts this week perhaps gives both Pools and Sweeney the opportunity to take stock of their current situations.

Antony Sweeney has conflicting views of Hartlepool United's league and cup balancing act (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)Antony Sweeney has conflicting views of Hartlepool United's league and cup balancing act (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)
Antony Sweeney has conflicting views of Hartlepool United's league and cup balancing act (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)

It’s been a turbulent month following the departure of Dave Challinor and Pools have had seven games to contest in that time on three different fronts.

But the cup competitions have provided a source of joy for Sweeney and Pools with the 38-year-old enjoying his first win in caretaker charge over Everton U21’s in the Papa John’s Trophy before securing a standout win over League One promotion chasers Wycombe Wanderers in their FA Cup first round replay.

“In terms of the break from the league there’s two ways of looking at it,” Sweeney explained to The Mail.

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“Yes, it might be a refresher where we can just gather our thoughts a little bit because it’s been relentless. There’s been no time to reflect on anything, it's just been constant preparation for games and recovering.

“But on the other hand, when you're on a run that we’re on, you want to put an end to that. So having a week-long break from that gives you another seven days where you can’t put an end to it.”

Sweeney has made no secret with regards to Pools’ priorities this season but admits there remains a big incentive to try and win at Hillsborough this evening.

“Again, there’s two thoughts on it. We’ve worked really hard to get where we are in two cup competitions and we want to advance in both.

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“The other thought is, it's come at a hectic time for the football club.

“At the minute it just feels like we’re playing, we're recovering and we’re playing then recovering. There’s nothing much you can do on the training ground to try and affect things. The contact time with the players has been quite minimal on the grass.

“[But] you’ve still got to perform,” Sweeney added.

“They’re a good side, whether they’ll make changes or not no one wants to go there and be on the end of a heavy defeat because if you don’t perform that can happen.

“We’ve played three games in the competition and put a lot of effort into them to get the opportunity to go to Sheff Wed, so it’s not a case of now fearing that or tossing that game aside because our priorities are the league.

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“We’ve worked hard to get to that position so we’ll try and win the game and progress in the competition. It’s likely to be a lot of clubs' best chance of winning a trophy or getting to Wembley so the side will be picked to try and win, not just to tick a box off in a game.”

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