Barnet trip still 'worthwhile' for Hartlepool United despite postponement, says Dave Challinor

The match was postponed late on Friday night after a Barnet player tested positive for coronavirus and a further three players were also subsequently announced to have been affected.

Despite the postponed match costing Pools in the region of £5,000 in hotel, travel and food fees, Challinor still felt there was a slight benefit of having made the trip.

“Regardless of where we go and what we do, the lads enjoy spending time together so the trip isn’t a problem for us,” he told The Mail.

"We train on the way down and that will still help prepare us for whenever the Barnet game is replayed, so it’s worthwhile in that respect.

“We enjoyed the evening before getting the message through with the disappointing news. Then on Saturday morning we got on the bus and headed home.

"The lads have had the weekend at home with their family which will do them good after a busy start to the season.

"We are where we need to be. We’ve altered the plan for this week as a result of the postponement and we look forward to Ilkeston.

"We’ll watch them and go and put a plan together to go and win there.”

Despite Pools enjoying an unbeaten start to the National League season, Challinor isn’t concerned that the two-week break without a National League match as a result of the postponement will impact his side’s momentum.

“We’ve played a lot of football and you could say a rest would be beneficial for us,” he added.

“We were always going to use Sunday and Monday as a chance to recharge because it’s the first week where we’ve not had a Tuesday night game and it was important we looked after the players we needed to look after were looked after.

"We’ve done that in a safe way where we’ve given the players a little bit of work to do over the weekend and we’ll still have Monday off before working towards the FA Cup game.”

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