Hartlepool United midfielder Luke Williams still 'some way off being back to his best

Hartlepool United midfielder Luke Williams marked what will hopefully be the end of his injury nightmare with a stunning cameo from the bench in last Saturday’s win over Sheffield United under-23s.
Luke Williams made an impressive impact after coming off the bench in last Saturday's win over Sheffield United under-23s (photo: Frank Reid).Luke Williams made an impressive impact after coming off the bench in last Saturday's win over Sheffield United under-23s (photo: Frank Reid).
Luke Williams made an impressive impact after coming off the bench in last Saturday's win over Sheffield United under-23s (photo: Frank Reid).

The 26-year-old featured for the first time in a Pools shirt since signing for the club on a permanent basis last summer and immediately looked right at home as he put in a impressive display that was capped off by a fine 20-yard strike just before the full-time whistle.

After spending all of last season sidelined, Williams is not getting ahead of himself after half an hour on the pitch in a friendly against what was essentially the Blades’ under-18s side.

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Hartlepool manager Craig Hignett has regularly stated that the former Middlesbrough youngster will be ‘the best player in the National League’ when fully fit, but Williams insists he’s still got a lot of work to do to reach that level.

“I’m still some way off it yet at the moment,” he admitted.

“I think I’m still at a decent point and I think that’s come with managing it with the coaching staff.

“I’m at a decent point where I can apply myself properly to games and not have to worry about things. But I’ve still got a long way to before I’m fully flying I think.”

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Williams has been training since the start of pre-season though Hignett has been intentionally stubborn in keeping his player under wraps until the time was right.

The Pools boss also hinted that Williams may only need a few games to get back to his best.

“We’ll go off the data really but I can’t see any reason why what the manager said couldn’t happen and couldn’t be true because I felt good out there on Saturday,” said the Pools midfielder.

“We’ll look at the Sheffield game and we have all the stats and look at the data to see how I’ve done and manage everything during the week building up to Saturday so we can compare things to see where I’m at.”

Hartlepool host Macclesfield Town at the Super 6 Stadium on Saturday (3pm kick-off), tickets available on the gate.