Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor confirms Luke Molyneux has tested positive for coronavirus following 'fully merited' opening day win against Aldershot Town

Gavan Holohan’s 86th minute winner added to Nicky Featherstone’s first-half penalty to see Pools claim their first opening day win since 2015.

After a dominant opening 45 minute display, Pools were pegged back by a well-taken goal from Aldershot’s Craig Tanner.

But Challinor’s side regained their composure to secure three points late on.

“I was pleased with the first-half performance, certainly,” Challinor said following the match.

“We should have been well out of sight yet we weren’t. On a different day, if you don’t finish teams off, you don’t get three points.

“The second half is probably more realistic as to what this league is about and teams have got to try and stop us and we’ve got to be better and win the battle all over again in the second half. I think we took too much confidence from our first-half performance and let our standards drop a little bit and expected it to be easy.

"We didn’t come up with the answers we needed to and gifted them a goal and on a different day, we don’t have that extra bit of quality needed to get the winner.

"In the first half alone, we fully merited the three points and thankfully we got them. It’s a great start and we take that onto Tuesday now.”

Luke Molyneux’s omission from the matchday squad will have taken some Poolies by surprise. But Challinor was quick to clarify the 22-year-old’s situation.

“Luke tested positive for coronavirus with no symptoms,” the United manager continued.

"We had a few who we thought might have had it and tested negative but Luke tested positive but he’s fine.

"He’s done his isolation bit so he’ll come into contention on Tuesday but he’s not trained for two weeks so it’s unfortunate for him because he looked sharp in pre-season and misses out due to something that’s impacting the whole world at the moment but he’ll be back and add to what is an already competitive squad."

A message from the Editor:

Hi, our aim is to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative coverage of YOUR club every single day, home and away, 365 days a year.

This depth of Pools coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to from the football team at the Hartlepool Mail, please consider taking out a subscription to our new sports-only package.

You'll find all the details at www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/subscriptions/sports

Your support is much appreciated.