The Teessider re-joined Pools in the summer with the club thrilled to have conjured up a hero from the Great Escape back in 2015.
It has not gone to plan for the club or Hugill since the reunion – Pools are 22nd in the National League and the 34-year-old, with fine career in the Championship behind him, has yet to find the net.
He is not alone in that regard given the squad go into Saturday’s visit to First Green Rovers with only eight goals to their name.
Hugill is desperate to see fortunes transformed.
“As soon as I found out interest the owner and the directorship involved in this club I saw it as a route back for me,” he said. “I took the opportunity to come back to Pools quite early, so I don’t know if there was any offers to have stayed in the Football League.
“I wanted to come home, I wanted to be a part of what was sold to me by [Bromby & Partners head of operations] Chris Maxwell and the board.
“It excited me. I wanted to be part of a squad that gets this club back to where we want to be.
“I’d like to believe it is possible to turn things around but I don’t think we can be thinking too far ahead at the moment.
“From my experience, we just need to deal now with what’s in front of us, do it one game at a time – win one game then look to go and win another.
“We have to start somewhere and hopefully that will be Saturday at Forest Green.”
Hugill has had chances in his last two games, a shot in last Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat to Harrogate which went wide, then a header in Saturday’s 1-0 set-back to Tamworth, which keeper Rhys Lovett tipped over.
He hopes things will click.
“I’m an out-and-out number nine, who is going to fight for everything and get in the box,” he said. “Unfortunately, I’m not getting in the right positions at the moment, or the ball’s not coming in when I want it to.
“All the lads are trying and with a new manager now it will be different and we’ll hopefully create more attacking football.”
