Hartlepool United manager pleased with side's "progression" after Pools make it back-to-back wins in pre-season

While it was by no means a vintage Pools performance, it was another valuable chance for the players to get minutes under their belts, while Grayson was able to experiment with different formations and take a look at a host of trialists.

In truth, there was not much to separate the sides until the final quarter of an hour and Pools survived one or two nervous moments against a lively and determined home team.

Pools went ahead 16 minutes from time when a second half trialist, reported to be Leatherhead's Ruben Bartlett-Antwi, scored from close range; it was the frontman's second goal in two games, having opened the scoring in Tuesday night's comfortable win over FC Hartlepool. The visitors doubled their lead in the 82nd minute when Tom Parkes powered home a header from a corner, while teenage attacker Kian Foreman, who impressed once again, forced a sharp save from Shane Bland late on.

Although it was a pretty uninspirational Pools performance, there were positives to be taken from their trip to North Yorkshire; Pools once again experimented with both 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 formations, while Grayson's side look fit, strong and powerful.

"It's another progression for our pre-season really," he said.

"We played on Tuesday night, then we had a triple session on Thursday and a double session on Friday. Obviously, that isn't how we'd prepare in a league campaign but it was a chance to work on our fitness. We had a look at two different systems as well.

"It's all about getting the basics right and setting the platform for the start of the season. There's a lot of attention to detail that we know we need to work on; at the top end of the pitch, but defensively as well.

"It was a good test for us, I thought Whitby asked questions of us at times - and that's what I want from these games. There's no point coming to a game where the opposition is average and we end up winning 7-0; we don't want that, we want to be tested and Whitby did that.

"The positive thing is that it's another win, and we want to have that winning mentality from the start of pre-season right the way through the season. We also want to have the mentality of keeping clean sheets and we've done that as well.

"Of course, the opposition is not what we're going to be up against come August 9, but we're forming some good habits and that's important."

Your next Hartlepool United read: Pools make it back-to-back wins in pre-season after beating Whitby