Hartlepool United manager Craig Hignett reflects on big win over Macclesfield Town

The Pools boss rested several key players for the match as he limited his matchday squad to just 16 players and made only three substitutions as goals from Nicky Featherstone, Gime Toure and Michael Raynes rounded off a positive afternoon at the Super 6 Stadium.

“It felt like a proper game today, we limited the squad and that’s what we want to do,” Hignett said.

“I don’t want to show my hand and the work will continue until I’m really happy and everyone is 100% on board with it.

“We mixed it up again and we will on Monday (behind closed doors v Sunderland) as well which will be the last friendly but I thought everything we’ve asked them to do was on show today.

“If I’ve got a criticism it’s sometimes we were a little bit sloppy and needed to concentrate a bit better and not let them in the game.

“I think at 0-0 we made a few chances and we had a sloppy moment where Ben Killip’s ended up handling a back-pass which could have been different. If we go 1-0 down after having the play that we had, it would have been disappointing.”

The options in the Pools squad is something that pleases Hignett as he looks to combat the injury issues in the squad.

Liam Noble, Luke Williams, Fraser Kerr, Jason Kennedy and Myles Anderson all sat-out the game.

“We’ve got loads of injuries, Luke Molyneux is out, Ryan Donaldson hasn’t played in pre-season and Josh Hawkes has done his hamstring and that’s without the ones I’ve left out like Nobser and Luke Williams, players like that,” he added.

“We’ve got strength in depth and it’s the first time for me. If we had six or seven players out injured last year in the league we’d have been struggling to field a team.

“It’s not like that anymore and for a manager it’s a real problem and a headache.

“I haven’t played my 11 yet and to be fair it’s probably changed again today after seeing some of the performances that I’ve seen.”