Chris Turner arrived at Hartlepool United in February 1999 with the club deep in relegation trouble. A run of 9 defeats in 13 games had seen the first team slip from 11th to 22nd in three months. That slump had cost Mick Tait his job, and the experimental management team of Paul Baker and Brian Honour lasted just seven matches. Turner`s only previous managerial role had also been as part of a two man team, with John Sitton at Leyton Orient. It looked a daunting task, but Turner managed to keep the side in the Football League with a number of shrewd signings. Gary Strodder arrived from Notts County to add steel to the defence, while Chris Freestone and Gary Jones nicked enough goals at the other end to turn tight defensive performances into much-needed wins. The next three years saw an almost unprecedented run of sustained good results for Pools. In 1999/2000 the club was involved in the end-of-season playoffs for the first time. That campaign ended with a chastening two-leg defeat to arch rivals Darlington, but Turner`s side regrouped and bounced back to make the playoffs again in both 2000/01 and 2001/02. After a heartbreaking sudden-death penalty defeat to Cheltenham Town in the 2002 semi-final, Turner went on record to state that the club would not need the playoffs a year later: they were going straight up. Pools began the 2002/03 season in fantastic style, quickly reaching the top of the table and remaining there for most of the season. By this time, a number of other clubs were taking notice of the progress made by the Hartlepool United team and its young manager. When Sheffield Wednesday parted company with their manager Terry Yorath and approached Pools, Turner (a lifelong Owls fan) found the position too tempting to resist and he left the club in November 2002, with the first team four points clear at the top of the division. Turner`s spell at Hillsborough lasted less than two years. Wednesday were relegated from the second tier in his first season and failed to make any real impact in their first season in the lower division. When the Owls began the 2004/05 season slowly Turner made way for Paul Sturrock, who went on to clinch promotion via the playoffs, beating Pools in the final. After a year at Stockport County during which his side won just 7 games, Turner bowed out of football management. In February 2006 he returned to Victoria Park to take up a position of Director of Sport. When Danny Wilson left his management post in December 2008, Turner was asked to reprise his role in charge of the first team in addition to his responsibilities as Director of Sport. The remainder of the season was a struggle, with Pools eventually surviving on the last day despite a heavy defeat at Bristol Rovers. That summer saw large changes to the squad with several players, including Micky Nelson and Joel Porter, leaving the club and a number of new faces joining the ranks. The opening game of the 2009/10 season at Milton Keynes saw six debutants in the starting lineup with a further two new signings, including the returning Adam Boyd, on the bench. But an encouraging start soon faded into another season of struggle, which once again went to the wire. Pools, hampered by a three point deduction for fielding the suspended Gary Liddle, avoided relegation on goal difference. The summer was one of speculation and rumour, the most persistent of which involved a potential takeover of the club leading to large-scale investment. Whatever fragments truth may have been behind these rumours, they eventually came to nothing. Pools started the season with a smaller squad and few new signings. Mick Wadsworth was brought to the club as first team coach while Turner remained in overall charge. That situation changed just three games into the new campaign, when Chris Turner resigned from his position with immediate effect.