ESCAPOLOGIST expert Danny Hollands believes Cherries' mission improbable is "easier" than his previous assignment.

Hollands played a starring role to help Torquay preserve their Football League status during a loan spell in Devon two years ago.

The Gulls were four points adrift in League Two when Hollands arrived from Premier League high-fliers Chelsea with just 10 games to go.

But with Hollands's current Cherries team-mate Jo Kuffour also coming up trumps, Torquay beat the drop after winning six times during their run-in.

And although a daunting 12-point gap separates second-from-bottom Cherries from safety, Hollands is still holding out hope of a repeat performance.

The midfielder told the Daily Echo: "I think we've got it easier now than we did at Torquay because we had a really hard run-in when I was there and I think ours is easier.

"We've got to play a lot of the teams around us and most of our games are winnable. We've just got to keep believing in ourselves and give it our best shot.

"That's what we did at Torquay. Although we had some very hard games and were six points behind at one stage, we stuck at it and pulled it off with a game to spare.

"Once you get on a roll, you grow in confidence with every game you win so if we can start doing that then the confidence will grow. We've got a good enough squad to get out of it.

"It's going to be a hard task but there's no reason why we can't succeed. We just need to go into every game with the attitude that we're going to win and stay positive.

"We've proved we can compete with the top teams and although nobody gave us a cat in hell's chances of beating Nottingham Forest, we battered them."

Hollands, who sat out Cherries' 2-2 draw with Cheltenham due to suspension, is expected to earn an instant recall when Hartlepool visit Dean Court tomorrow (3pm).

"We dropped a couple of points last week so the Hartlepool game is even more important now," said the 23-year-old, who scored during the reserves' midweek win over Cheltenham.

"We need to win the games against the teams around us and pick up three points and stop them getting three at the same time.

"We probably should have beaten Hartlepool at their place in November.

"Everyone I spoke to said how well we had played and that we deserved to win.

"We're confident we can beat them. They are good going forward and, in Richie Barker, have one of the top goalscorers in the division.

"We've got to approach the game with the attitude that we can win and give it our all. Hopefully, we can put our chances away this week and come away with the three points."

Cherries: (from) Stewart, Young, Pearce, Gowling, Cummings, Bradbury, Bartley, Gradel, Kuffour, Vokes, Cooper, Hollands, Pitman, Tessem, Partington, McQuoid, Franks, Pryce.

Hartlepool: (from) Budtz, McCunnie, Nelson, Lee, Humphreys, Sweeney, Boland, Liddle, Monkhouse, Barker, Porter, Antwi, Barrett (g/k), Craddock, Foley, Robson, Mackay.