Dave Challinor has message for Hartlepool United fringe players ahead of Halifax Town clash

Dave Challinor is preparing to give some Hartlepool United fringe players a chance in the FA Trophy clash away at Halifax Town this weekend.
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The two clubs will do battle three times over the coming fortnight, twice in the National League and this weekend’s cup game.

And Challinor is looking to make changes and has urged those players handed an opportunity at 3pm on Saturday to prove to him they should be playing every week.

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Challinor said: “It’s sod’s law, it was always going to be the case where we ended up drawing somebody who we’d just played or in this case will be playing twice in quick succession.

The Hartlepool United players celebrate a goal. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)The Hartlepool United players celebrate a goal. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)
The Hartlepool United players celebrate a goal. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)

"We’ll end up playing Halifax three consecutive Saturday’s on the spin.

"We’re away from home but it’s not the worst thing with Halifax being our closest National League opponents.

"We’ll get an understanding of where they’re at and we’ll use the game as an opportunity to give some of our lads games who need it and look at a few different things.

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"We’ll be going there trying to win a game of football and a lot of our players who come to me saying they should be playing then Saturday’s game is a chance to prove that and show what they can do against a good team at this level.

"We’re going to have to be good, we know that.”

Luke Williams could be handed a start by Challinor. The Pools boss says whoever is picked has to take their chance.

Challinor added: “The players who get the opportunity on Saturday have a massive carrot dangling at the end of it that says if you do well and perform then they’ll have a shirt for the next league game at home to Stockport.

"We’ll be putting a team out who will feel they should be in the starting line-up in the league and they’ve got a chance to prove that now.

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"What you can’t do is be knee-jerk and what happened recently is our results have been inconsistent but our performances have been steady but that was by no means anywhere near steady at Woking.

"No one can say they’ve done their job [that day].”

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