Former Mansfield Town, Carlisle United and Northampton Town manager Keith Curle takes over at Hartlepool United

It means Stags will face their old boss when the two sides meet at the One Call Stadium on Fri 30th September.

Curle, who guided Mansfield to their play-off final defeat in the 2003/04 season, faces a stiff task with Pools yet to win a league game this season.

He steps in after previous boss Paul Hartley was given the boot over the weekend.

Pools chairman Raj Singh said: “"Keith has a lot of experience and know-how at this level, including turnarounds and achieving promotion into League One with a side just two years ago.

"He has a profile that we believe is needed at this time to immediately step in, sure things up and start moving the team forward again.

"He has already spoken to Tony Sweeney, who has previously done caretaker duties, to ask him to re-join the first team coaching staff and alongside Colin they will hit the ground running this week.”

Curle spent three-and-a-half years at Brunton Park before moving to Sixfields in 2018 where he led the Cobblers to promotion from League Two in 2020.

His most recent spell in management came at Oldham Athletic where he would leave Boundary Park by mutual consent in November last year after just eight months in charge of the Latics.