Hartlepool United midfielder Nicky Featherstone hoping to step things up ahead of National League season opener

The 30-year-old has featured in all of Pools’ friendlies so far but is one of only six senior players yet to play over an hour in any of the matches.

With Pools’ seventh and final friendly at home to Macclesfield on Saturday (3pm kick-off), Featherstone is hoping to step things up ahead of the season opener.

“I’m getting there, I feel alright but I haven’t played longer than 60 minutes at the minute so there’s still a bit of work to do,” admitted the United number 8.

“But in terms of where we are and the stage of pre-season we’re at, I’m feeling pretty good.

“Pre-season is always difficult, some more than others but no footballer likes pre-season, they might tell you otherwise but they don’t. We all know the end result is just to be fit and ready for the first game of the season and I think things are progressing well.”

Pools will have played seven games before their season opener at home to Sutton United and within the first month they play a further nine league matches.

It will be a busy start to the season for Featherstone and his Pools teammates but it’s one that they feel ready to tackle head-on.

“We’re all looking forward to getting things started now,” he said,

“It’s a long six weeks pre-season and it’s hard work but with the games coming thick and fast in pre-season it does make it easier and gets us ready for a busy start to the season in the league.”

In terms of targets, the Pools midfielder was remaining tight-lipped ahead of his sixth competitive campaign at the club.

“It’s difficult to have any individual targets for me but we’ve got a collective target with what we want to do,” Featherstone added.

“I won’t disclose that right now but we’ve got a target in mind which everyone is buying into and pulling in the same direction to achieve.”