Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor discusses FC Halifax Town rearrangement ahead of blank weekend

Hartlepool United are facing a two week spell without a competitive match following Tuesday night's postponement at Halifax Town.
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The match at The Shay has to be rearranged after it was postponed just over an hour before kick-off due to a frozen pitch.

A new date is yet to be set for the game and unless it can be rearranged before next Saturday's long trip to Weymouth, it means Dave Challinor’s side will go two weeks without a competitive game.

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Hartlepool manager, Dave Challinor  during the Vanarama National League match between Hartlepool United and Boreham Wood at Victoria Park, Hartlepool on Saturday 5th December 2020. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)Hartlepool manager, Dave Challinor  during the Vanarama National League match between Hartlepool United and Boreham Wood at Victoria Park, Hartlepool on Saturday 5th December 2020. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)
Hartlepool manager, Dave Challinor during the Vanarama National League match between Hartlepool United and Boreham Wood at Victoria Park, Hartlepool on Saturday 5th December 2020. (Credit: Mark Fletcher | MI News)
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A Pools XI beat Sunderland under-23s 5-2 at The Academy of Light on Wednesday afternoon in a friendly match involving several first team squad members who didn’t start in Saturday’s 3-1 National League win over Wealdstone.

And after going second with three wins in six days in December, Pools are now facing the prospect of playing just one competitive game in 26 days.

As a result, Challinor is keen to get games played before Hartlepool’s schedule becomes busy once again.

“We’re pretty busy through February but we’re pretty blank through January,” he said. "When the Halifax game will be played, I don’t know, we’ll look at our fixtures.

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"This was a tough one because we were asked to play a [friendly] game this Saturday which would involved an overnight stay for us. We didn’t think that would work for us."

Both Pools and Halifax have next Tuesday (January 19) free, providing a favourable slot to get the game played.

While no new date has been set as of Thursday morning, Challinor has proposed an earlier kick-off time in order to ensure the game goes ahead.

For once matches are in short supply for Pools, who are keen to get games played. They even proposed bringing their rearranged match at Eastleigh forward from February 16 to this weekend due to neither team being in FA Trophy action.

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"Only two weeks ago we were trying to arrange a [league] game for Saturday against a team we were going to play later in the season on a Tuesday night,” Challinor added.

"But they weren’t open to moving that fixture so we have a blank Saturday now.”

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