Hartlepool United midfielder Liam Noble expecting big changes following opening day defeat against Sutton United

An early brace from Sutton’s Harry Beautyman set the tone for a disappointing afternoon at Victoria Park as Pools were unable to turn things around despite Gime Toure pulling a goal back.

Noble felt the performance was not to the standard everyone had come to expect from the side and the numerous midfield options in the squad have him expecting several changes at Halifax Town on Tuesday night (7:45pm kick-off).

“Building up to the game, all the talk was about [Craig Hignett] having a headache picking the team but after today’s performance I don’t think anyone who started today could have any complaints if they were left out on Tuesday,” he said.

“We had the shirts on the opening day to keep but I don’t think there will be many keeping them.

“We’ve been together six weeks now and there’s no excuses that we haven’t gelled or anything like that.

“We weren’t good enough in the opening 25 minutes but I think second half we did well, we passed it well and broke them a few times.

“It’s a wake-up call for us, we were coming into the game thinking we would win as we will every game but it’s just frustrating.

“It’s a long season, we need to be coming back here a week on Tuesday with six points on the board.”

Noble also addressed the fans’ understandable frustrations following the opening day display.

“You can’t have another player speaking on Tuesday saying we go again Saturday,” he added.

“Maybe the fans will give us the first one, I know what fans are like, I’m a Newcastle fan and I’ll give my team one [poor performance] but I won’t give them another.

“We need to do the talking on the pitch on Tuesday night because we can’t keep speaking after the games and saying the same things because the fans pay the money to see us play well, win games and we haven’t done that.”