Graeme Lee admits to having some selection headaches after a 'very high standard' of training from his Hartlepool United squad

It has been the perfect start for Graeme Lee in charge of Hartlepool United having oversaw two wins in his first two games in the dugout.

Wins against Lincoln City and Rochdale followed an impressive Papa John’s Trophy victory over League One Sheffield Wednesday in Antony Sweeney’s last game as caretaker manager.

Lee has now had just-shy of two weeks to evaluate his squad and whilst these victories have been very welcome, he has admitted that they have caused him a few selection headaches:

"On the pitch, with the two games, I haven’t changed a hell of a lot.” Lee said ahead of Saturday’s clash with Scunthorpe United.

"You’re looking and thinking ‘am I going to change much again?’ Because we’ve won games and you don’t want to disrupt that.

"But regarding the squad and the other lads, I’ve probably had a lot more focus of our time thinking ‘who’s going to be on the bench? Who can impact the game? What’s the balance like?

"That’s probably been the hardest bit because there’s probably ten or twelve players there all training at a very high standard that probably could come on and impact the game.

"That’s probably been the difficult thing in managing those lads and saying ‘look, you might not be starting, we’re just new in, be patient keep training hard and doing the right things because there’s a lot of games coming up’.

"They’re going to be needed, they’re going to be playing and that could be them in the team for the rest of the season.

"The opportunities will come but the lads who have been given the nod to start are performing at the minute, but they are getting pushed.”

Lee continued: "What I am seeing in training is giving me a good headache.”

Scunthorpe United are up next at the Suit Direct Stadium and despite their off-field troubles this season, Lee is predicting a tough encounter against the side currently bottom of the football league:

“I’ve been in teams where you’ve had disruption off the pitch and it brings teams closer together.Players in the changing room are all in the same position so it makes them more of a unit.

"Keith Hill has come in, I know Tony McMahon, they will be working hard, they’re proven, they know the league, they know what they’re doing and you can see that from the last three results.

"They’ve had three draws so they’re in games now and they’re challenging all the teams in the league.” Lee said.

"There’s no easy game in this league, and there’s never any easy football match, but for me, I’ve got to make sure our lads are right at it from the start and hopefully they’re not looking at the league table and thinking ‘oh we’ve won the last three games, we’re going alright’.

"We need to make sure [of our performance] because there were areas of the other night I wasn’t pleased with.

"We’ll highlight that today and hopefully get back to the standards and we need to start dominating games.”

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