Dave Challinor's great response to being forced to watch Hartlepool United's 2-1 opening day win against Aldershot Town from the stands

The Pools boss served the first of his three-match touchline ban for violent/improper conduct as goals from Nicky Featherstone and Gavan Holohan saw the hosts to victory.

And following the match, Challinor reflected on the positive side of being in the stands.

“It wasn’t bad to be honest, it probably worked out better with there being no supporters so I could get things across from where I was,” he said.

“It’s a strange environment but it’s a decent view. Maybe sitting back there in the boxes and having food and lager is the way forward!

“But in all seriousness, I’ll be much happier once I’m allowed back on the touchline. I’d rather be serving it now when it’s in an empty ground than when it’s full of supporters although I might have to apologise to BT Sports for my language!”

On the match itself, Challinor added: “The two big learning things for me today when you do play as well as we played in the first half, whether that was because Aldershot weren’t at it or we were just very good, you need to finish teams off when you’re on top.

“You don’t often get second opportunities to kill teams off at this level.

"We’ve got to do that better, we can’t be one dimensional and we’ve got enough experience to recognise what is needed to put games to bed.”

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