Hartlepool United player watch - Mohamad Sylla: How ex-Oldham Athletic and Aldershot Town midfielder fared in Northampton Town defeat

Sylla was making his first league start for Pools following his debut against Blackburn Rovers in the Carabao Cup with the Frenchman showing some positive signs alongside Nicky Featherstone in midfield.

Sylla, who spent last season in the National League with Aldershot Town, is a new signing at the Suit Direct Stadium having agreed a one-year deal with the club.

And his arrival should ensure manager Paul Hartley can focus his attention on attacking additions over the remainder of the transfer market with the 28-year-old demonstrating he could be a decent piece of business based on his league debut for Pools.

With Sylla and Mouhamed Niang, Hartley has options as to who should partner captain Featherstone in that double-pivot role in the centre of midfield, and at Sixfields that opportunity went to Sylla.

“He was positive. He was a good anchor in there,” was how manager Hartley described Sylla’s performance against the Cobblers with the consensus in general being it was an encouraging display.

Sylla’s attributes allowed him to become almost the box-to-box man in the Pools midfield while Featherstone sat and tidied things up in behind.

Within two minutes, Sylla showed some of those traits when dispossessing Danny Hylton and driving over the halfway line before attempting a through ball into Josh Umerah inside the defender, but his pass had too much weight on it.

The Frenchman was strong in the tackle in the early stages, particularly with a crowd-pleasing challenge on the lively Mitch Pinnock, before showing his strength when riding a tackle from Shaun McWillaims to maintain possession for Pools and drive forward.

And the midfielder was largely behind Pools’ bright start in the second half when again dispossessing Hylton and becoming the additional man to force a high press on Marc Leonard as the home crowd grew a little agitated.

There were, naturally, errors which began to seep in as the 28-year-old fatigued, having not enjoyed much of a pre-season, as could be seen when cheaply losing possession to Pinnock before being substituted in the final quarter of the game.

Sylla received a pat on the back from his manager and certainly gives Hartley a decision to make in the middle of the park.

In total, the Frenchman enjoyed the most dribbles for Pools and, alongside defender Rollin Menayese, made the most interceptions as per Who Scored.

Sylla’s heatmap shows his versatility, with plenty of work in both halves of the field as the midfielder also registered one of Pools’ attempts at goal.

He completed 81 per cent of his total passes in the game, 90 per cent of those being accurate when conceived to be playing ‘safer’ passes as per data experts Wyscout.

Defensively, the 6'2'' midfielder won 100 per cent of his aerial duels and won five out of six ground duels, also picking up four out of six loose balls.

While they may not necessarily be ground-breaking numbers, they represent a decent start from Sylla in his first game back in League Two and put him in a good position to continue in Hartley’s line-up.