Colin Todd today hailed Mark Bower's signing as a statement of intent.

Todd believes the defender's decision to stick with City and ignore the competition sends out a powerful message.

"It proves to everybody that we do want to keep our better players," he said. "If the club are going to make progress, we can't afford to let people leave who can play a major part.

"There probably were offers on the table from other clubs. But Mark has shown loyalty and feels we are going places."

It is the ideal pick-me-up ahead of tomorrow's crucial home game with sixth-placed Hartlepool.

City can shave the gap behind them to two points with victory and Todd said: "Every game is significant if we want to achieve our objective of the play-offs but this one has a lot of bearing.

"The players look at the league table and know what they have to do. They know it's a formidable task but if we can get that win it sets us up to go for the next one.

"Hartlepool have lost four games in a row but that doesn't make them a bad side. They are still in a play-off position and we are playing catch-up.

"But the belief among the squad is strong. We need to play in the same manner as the Huddersfield game here and have enough of the ball over the 90 minutes to make them sick of us."

Lee Crooks is still struggling with the back problem that forced him to miss Peterborough.

Owen Morrison is pushing for a recall after impressing as a substitute when he came on for Ben Muirhead.