Paul Hartley relishing going up against Manchester United legend as Hartlepool United face Bradford City

Pools are looking for their first win of the season as Paul Hartley pits his wits against Bantams boss Mark Hughes.

And here is everything Hartley had to say ahead of the Bradford fixture.

How do you reflect on the draw with Tranmere?

I think the good thing was we got a clean sheet. It’s just that final bit at the top end of the pitch. We just need to try and create a little bit more and just be ruthless when you get your chances. The good thing is the players worked really hard. We had to change the shape at half-time and they adjusted to that. I still take a lot of positives from the game. I think Wes had a good debut and that clean sheet is really important for us.

How important are the clean sheets?

It gives us something to build on. Bradford are a strong team. They’ve got some good players. I went to see them last week and we’ll need to be at our best. We’ll need to defend properly as a unit and then the other end of the pitch is the key area for us. But the important thing is the two home games that we’ve had we’ve managed to keep clean sheets and we’ve looked really solid at the back.

What threats are you expecting from Bradford?

They’ve got a lot of good players at the top end of the pitch. They’ve got goal threats. We went to see them against Hull last week and they played really well and they got a good result. So we need to be aware of their threats that’s for sure.

Does a lunchtime kick-off change anything?

Not particularly. I think it’s just the same approach. We’ll look forward to it. We’re expecting a good crowd and I thought our fans were brilliant the other night. It was a great atmosphere and they really got behind the team and I’m sure they’ll get behind the team on Saturday. We’re expecting a great atmosphere and hopefully that will motivate the players to get a good result.

How much are you looking forward to going up against Mark Hughes?

I think Mark Hughes, going back to when he was a player, he was a top player. He’s managed at the highest level. So I’m looking forward to seeing him. I’ve never met him before but I’m looking forward to going up against him.

He’s got great experience in the game and he’s building a good group of players there. They’ve invested heavily. They’re one of the favourites to get promoted. But we’re at home and we want to start trying to turn our home form into wins.

Have you received any insight on Bradford from Callum Cooke?

I think we do our own homework, but we will speak to Cookie just to get a little low-down on them. Obviously they’ve brought some players in over the summer. They brought young Scott Banks in from Palace, they’ve got others threats in the final third. But we’ve done our homework on them, it’s about putting it into practice.

With Euan Murray a doubt, could we see a change in formation?

It’s something we’ll look at and how we can exploit the Bradford weakness.

We said to the players when we first got together that the style won’t change, but the shape may change from time to time. It was enforced on Tuesday with Muzza getting injured during the first half. So there’s a possibility that we could change it, but we may stick to the same system.