Hartlepool United complete signing of former Grimsby Town goalkeeper following Ben Killip injury

19-year-old former Grimsby Town scholar Patrick Boyes was registered ahead of Saturday’s 3-2 win against Harrogate Town following injury to Ben Killip but the paperwork was filed three minutes too late for the youngster to be eligible to be part of Hartlepool’s matchday squad.

Instead, Killip was named on the bench and Jonathan Mitchell made his league debut.

But manager Dave Challinor has confirmed that Boyes is now eligible to feature for Pools if needed.

“We’ve had a young lad training with us since the start of the season,” Challinor told The Mail.

"With the players we sign, especially young ones, we want to provide a games programme so the ideal thing for him will be to get him some games in the Northern League or somewhere.

"Thankfully we’re back in the Football League but you can’t sign non-contract players so we struggle on that one.

"Hopefully, with the issues with Ben, we’re well covered now for eventualities.”

On Killip’s injury, Challinor added: “Ben was a tough one because we tried to sign [Boyes] on Friday and things didn't get done in time so we then had a decision to make in terms of what we do.

"I had to make a decision that was the worst case scenario. The way I was looking at it was if Ben did a fitness test, because it's a slight quad problem so kicking for a goalkeeper is always going to be an issue, and felt something or did a fitness test that put him back three or fours weeks then we’ve got a problem.

"If he started the game and had to come off then you have to make a sub of a goalkeeper which is something you ideally don’t want to do.

"But on the flip side if he had pulled out the game and we were left with one goalkeeper and Jono goes down in the warm-up then we’re left playing an outfield player in goal which not only do I not want to do, it looks ridiculous for a professional football club.

“That’s the decision we made, fingers crossed by next weekend that problem has dampened down and we’ve got three keepers moving forward so we don’t leave ourselves shorthanded.”

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