Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor on his anger with top scorer Gime Toure following three match suspension

Toure was set to start for Pools in Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Eastleigh but the news of his suspension meant a last minute change of plan was in order.

The forward is Hartlepool’s top scorer this season with 12 goals though has scored in just one game from open play since Challinor took charge back in November.

The FA charge was accepted by the club and player as it was revealed that Toure had hit an Oxford United player with his arm during the 4-1 defeat in the FA Cup third round on Saturday.

“I’m disappointed, I’m angry, he’s let the players down and I think from our perspective as a team it’s frustrating,” Challinor admitted.

“I had no idea what was going on and we had obviously trained yesterday and planned to pick a team and Gime would have started.

“So for to then find out last night that the referee were thinking about charging him wasn’t great because we had no preparation time to have to change the team we worked on yesterday.

“But I’m not defending his actions in any way, it’s unacceptable and I’m a big one in my players giving everything they’ve got and being aggressive in what they do but discipline is something that is massively important and he’s let everyone down.

“It was blatant and there was no appeal from us. I’m unhappy, shall we say.”