The 28-year-old defender set the League One side on their way to a famous FA Cup third-round victory over Barclays Premier League Stoke with a 49th-minute header as Tony Pulis' men eventually went down 2-0 at Victoria Park.

Nelson, who played in the 2005 play-off final at the Millennium Stadium which saw Pools come within nine minutes of the Coca-Cola Championship before being denied in extra-time by Sheffield Wednesday, admitted the victory was among the high points of his career.

However, it came after league defeats over Christmas at Scunthorpe and, in depressing circumstances, at home to bottom-of-the-table Crewe which left the club in 15th place. And the main focus now is Saturday's difficult trip to Oldham.

Nelson said: "It's got to be the best, really, especially for the run of form we have been on of late.

"It's given the whole club a big boost and hopefully we can carry it on into the league.

"But we don't want to win the cup games and just plod along in the league. Hopefully, it will pick us up and we can take that kind of form into the league.

"Regardless of them having injuries and suspensions or whatever, they are still a Premier League team who have taken points from top-four Premier League sides, so for us to keep a clean sheet and win quite convincingly, it has got to be one of the best games I have been involved in at the club."

The win was all the more remarkable because it came with director of sport Chris Turner temporarily back at the helm in the wake of Danny Wilson's departure last month and in the midst of a selection crisis which deepened markedly before the half-time whistle had sounded.

With loan striker Kevin Kyle having returned to Coventry and talented youngster James Brown out for the season through injury, Turner was dealt a further blow when, having already lost full-back Antony Sweeney to an ankle problem, frontman Michael Mackay followed him down the tunnel after a challenge which left him coughing up blood.

But it was his replacement, 5ft 4ins winger David Foley, who cemented the victory when he smashed home a 25-yard drive with 14 minutes remaining.

The 21-year-old is yet to score a senior league goal for the club he joined at Under-16 level having been rejected by Sunderland at the age of 12 for being too small, but it was he who stole the headlines.

Nelson said: "I will be having a word with him when I see him.

"It's great for him. We are a little bit light on strikers at the minute, so he has probably put himself a little claim in there to keep the place."

Foley, who counts former Chelsea superstar Gianfranco Zola and Newcastle striker Michael Owen among his role models, insists his lack of inches should be no bar to his chances of making it in the professional game.

He said: "There are loads of good small players. It doesn't worry me at all and I don't think it should worry anybody else, to be honest."

Few inside Victoria Park were worrying about it when Foley struck the fatal blow, although he later admitted he did not even see the ball hit the back of the net.

He said: "It was one of those. It took a nice little bobble on the floor, it sat up nicely and I knew as soon as I hit it.

"I didn't even see it go in, to be honest. I knew it was in and I don't know what I did, I was just running all over the place."

Pulis, who made seven changes, several of them enforced - most notably by Ricardo Fuller's suspension for slapping skipper Andy Griffin - was magnanimous in defeat, although disappointed by the way some of his squad players handled the challenge.

He said: "In the first half, we were okay at best. In the second half, we could have done a lot better and should have done a lot better.

"But I don't want to blame our players, I just want to give the credit to Hartlepool."