Lee Clark explains Hartlepool United pre-season plan ahead of Redcar Athletic test
Hartlepool United face Northern Premier League Premier Division newcomers Redcar Athletic in their latest pre-season friendly on Tuesday night.
Lee Clark has given an insight into the plan he has pieced together as he prepares for his first season in charge of Hartlepool United.
Clark got to see his new-look side in action for the first time on Saturday as new signings Chris Popov and Will Harris both found the net in a 3-0 victory at Northern League Division Two newcomers Seaton Carew. There will be a significant step-up in class when Pools travel to Redcar Athletic on Tuesday night as their hosts continue their own preparations for the new season that will see them compete in the Northern Premier League Premier Division for the first time in their history.
That will be followed by two visits to National League North opposition as Pools take on Spennymoor Town and Hebburn Town over the next week before returning to The Vic to face League Two side Grimsby Town and Fleetwood Town ahead of the competitive action getting underway. With a challenging fortnight lying in wait, Clark has explained how he will navigate his side’s preparations for the new National League season.
Speaking after Saturday’s win at Hornby Park, Clark told the club website: “We are going to be looking at one or two different things. We will debrief this game on Monday morning with the players and then we will focus in on the Redcar game. We will go with some players getting a bit more than 45 minutes in the next game and building up and go from there. We might even look at a little bit of a different formation because that might happen over the course of the season.
“This is the time to do the work, when you’ve got the opportunity to get your ideas across. We haven’t particularly worked loads on tactics, we’ve done a lot on what we want to be without the ball and we’ve touched on phases of play, shape when we’ve got it but we will be intensifying that now we are two weeks into pre-season as we step up the quality of opponent, which has been done purposely, to give us an idea of where we want to be on 8th August.”
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