Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor ready to take advantage of fixture schedule settling down with busy training plan

Pools have played 13 matches in the last seven weeks with time in between games being largely restricted to match preparation and travelling.

Now, providing there are no postponements and rearrangements, Hartlepool have no more scheduled midweek matches this season.

And having ‘Saturday, Saturday’ schedule is something that Challinor believes will help his side unlock their full potential.

“I welcome the fixture schedule calming down mainly because it gives us chance to recover after a difficult period,” he said.

“A bigger thing for me is that it gives us full weeks to embed the principles that we are trying to put into place and get us to a point where we can play with a high intensity.

“Those weeks won’t be weeks where we’ll have days off, it gives us chance to work on things and hopefully we have bodies available to help us do that.

“I told the players that once we’re into the Saturday, Saturday stage, it gives us the chance to focus more on the individual players and where they need to get better rather than just preparing for games. We’ll be looking to use the time well and improve as a team.

“It’s important after this busy period that the players do recover. After that, Saturday, Saturday games gives me the chance as a new manager to really implement things because the games aren’t coming around so quickly.”