Gordon Watson is thrilled to bits to be facing Bradford City for the first time since leaving under a cloud.

Watson leads the Hartlepool attack at the Victoria Ground tomorrow, admitting: "I want to show the Bradford people that I'm doing all right."

Watson won £900,000 in damages in 1999 while a City player after a horror tackle ruled him out of the game for 18 months and threatened to end his career.

Having fought back bravely, he infuriated the club - who had paid his £250,000 legal costs in the court case - by snubbing the offer of another one-year contract in the Premiership.

Chairman Geoffrey Richmond complained at the time that Watson's actions "shattered one's confidence in human nature". Former manager Paul Jewell said: "Everything he has wanted he has had."

The super-sub of the promotion campaign instead headed back to the south coast, where he still lives in Southampton.

After an injury-hit season with Bournemouth, he started training full-time again at Portsmouth a year ago before joining Hartlepool in October.

"Flash", who still trains with Portsmouth at the beginning of the week before flying up to the north-east every Wednesday, showed he had lost none of his sharpness by scoring 18 goals from 35 starts.

He said: "This is my first chance to play against Bradford since I left and I can't wait.

"I enjoyed my time there and all the people at the club were absolutely top drawer. I loved them all, it was brilliant.

"I left under someone else's clouded opinion but that does not mean anything to me. The people of Bradford were unbelievable to me and I mean that with all my heart.

"They helped me get back from a career-threatening injury and I would never have a bad word said against them."

Watson, who recently signed a new one-year contract, has begun pre-season with a bang. He scored five in a 12-0 win over Dutch amateur side TSV Theole and two at Berwick Rangers on Saturday.

Hartlepool were beaten 1-0 at home by Stockport on Wednesday with an own-goal from centre-half Graeme Lee. But Watson said: "We are on the right road. It is good that we are coming up against higher division sides now.

"We had loads of chances and the boys still felt fresh in the 85th minute, so you can't ask for any more from a pre-season game."