Hartlepool United academy make strong start to new season with Rotherham United and Bradford City victories

Hartlepool’s academy kicked off their 2023-24 campaign with a resounding 4-0 win over Rotherham United before claiming another impressive result against Bradford City the following week where they won 3-0.

And the young Pools stars came within seconds of making it a 100 per cent start when twice seeing a lead slip against Harrogate Town who fought back with a stoppage time equaliser in an entertaining 2-2 draw.

And Pools’ youth team coach McGuckin has relayed his pride in his young players for their start to the new season.

"It was a good start to the month [against Rotherham],” he said.

"The performance was certainly there – we kept a clean sheet and scored four goals.

"The pleasing thing for me though was seeing how the new lads gelled into the group, both on and off the field.

"We have several first years joining up with our second years, and you can question what the dynamics will be like, but they've shown real unity and you can see that in our results.

"We found Bradford an extremely tough opponent last year, so that shows how much we've progressed," he added.

"It was nice to get back-to-back wins with high performance levels. We're focusing on consistency because that's what will develop the players."

Speaking on the late draw with Harrogate, McGuckin said: "Harrogate were last year's champions. Of course there's a different intake year-to-year, but they're still a very good opponent.

"All in all, it was probably a fair result. Both teams had chances and they pegged us back twice. Their second was in the last minute from a corner which was slightly frustrating but the lads will learn from it.”

Pools’ under-18s now switch their focus to a busy September with a number of league games and a League Cup tie with Preston North End.

“We’ve got some more big league games, but we also enter the cup competitions,” said McGuckin.

"We have Preston North End in the League Cup [on September 9]. We faced them last year and it was a tough game, they’ve got a good catchment area. We might take the opportunity to rotate the side and share out the minutes for that one.”