Dave Challinor gives his assessment of Stoke City loanee Will Goodwin's debut for Hartlepool United

It was a bittersweet day for the 19-year-old on loan from Stoke City as he scored an equaliser for Pools in front of the travelling supporters only for the side to fall to a 3-2 defeat at Holker Street.

On an otherwise frustrating day for Dave Challinor and his side, the Pools boss highlighted Goodwin’s display as a positive.

“I thought Will was excellent,” he said. “Again it’s not a big ask but in terms of a 19-year-old making his league debut and doing how he did against an experienced back three, I thought he was fantastic and deserved his goal.

“The game will do him the world of good. In pre-season he was involved with Stoke’s first team and only played 70-minutes so the 90-minutes here will absolutely benefit him.

“There are positive signs we just need to get someone up there alongside him to help him out."

Goodwin’s forward partner Tyler Burey also got on the scoresheet for Pools on his first league start for the club.

The winger has had to play out of position due to the lack of natural striker options available to Hartlepool at the moment. The 20-year-old is on an initial loan from Championship club Millwall until the new year.

"In terms of Tyler, he played in a position that isn’t natural to him and you can obviously see that he will impact games,” Challinor added.

“We’ve just got to make sure the impact he has leads to goalscoring opportunities and isn’t too far away from the pitch. It will be a big learning curve for him in terms of the game and things that happened in the game.

"If he's going to achieve what he wants to achieve in terms of his personal career, he’ll have to improve on that and I’m sure he will. He’s willing to learn and wants to be told. There are positive signs from Tyler and Will in particular.”

Pools now have a free week following the rearrangement of the trip to Sutton United as they now look ahead to Saturday’s home match against Walsall.

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