Hartlepool United in Tenerife: Pools boss Craig Hignett praise for '˜best training facility'

Pools today had their first day at the Top Training Tenerife complex in La Caleta on the south tip of the island.

The party, made up of 24 players and eight staff, arrived late last night before running the journey out of their legs this morning.

Hignett is very impressed with the complex which, in the past, has been used by Liverpool and Manchester City.

“The pitches are immaculate, the equipment is superb and they have everything we could possibly need,” said the boss.

“I would go so far as to say that in all my years involved in football it’s the best training facility I have been to, underlined by how brilliant the staff there have been

“They stayed for our [first] full session to ensure everything was perfect for us, they simply couldn’t have done more.”

Hignett said the first stint on the training ground had gone well, with the exceptioon of the early loss of new signing Jake Orrell with a “tight” thigh.

“It was a good first session for the players,” he told the Pools website.

“We wanted to ease them in to it a little bit to get the journey out of their legs.

“But once we’d done the long warm-up, we were able to get through a lot of great work.

“We moved in to some attacking play and working on how to open up defences before also touching on defending and shape.”