Hartlepool United looking to make it 10 National League games unbeaten at Dagenham & Redbridge with Lewis Cass and Timi Odusina returning from suspension

Pools have lost just two of their last 17 matches in the fifth tier and are unbeaten in their last nine going into the match at the Chigwell Construction Stadium.

The match was initially set to take place last month but was postponed an hour before kick-off with the Hartlepool squad already at the stadium in East London.

Back then, the Daggers weren’t in the best of form having won just one of their last seven games. Now Tuesday’s hosts are looking up having gone unbeaten in their last five in the National League with three wins.

Still, 16 points separate second placed Pools with 16th placed Dagenham as Dave Challinor’s side look to close the gap on leaders Sutton United.

“It would be massive to make it 10 unbeaten on Tuesday,” the Pools boss told The Mail.

“It’s the first of two difficult away games coming up for us this week with Stockport County on Saturday. We obviously play Dagenham twice in a short period of time as well but it’s one we’re looking forward to.

“It will be a tough ask because it’s a long way to go and we’ll travel on the day looking to come out the traps quickly.”

Pools will host Dagenham back at Victoria Park on Good Friday (1pm kick-off) but will firstly be looking to take three points away from home this Tuesday.

And with Timi Odusina and Lewis Cass both returning from suspension, Challinor has plenty of options to choose from.

"It’s ideal having players back because it allows us to mix things up which we’re going to have to do,” added the Pools boss.

“Shelts [Mark Shelton] was unfortunate not to start on Saturday and just as important, Crawfs [Tom Crawford] was difficult to leave out of the squad because he’s been training unbelievably well and I said that to the players.

"We do have competition coming back with Timi and Cass back from suspension. We’ve got no complaints as a management team and we’ve got to go and pick the best team to try and win the game on Tuesday.”

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