Has Derby County loanee Henrich Ravas claimed the starting goalkeeper spot at Hartlepool United? Dave Challinor discusses 'difficult situaiton'

The Derby County loanee started in Saturday’s abandoned match at Eastleigh after impressing at Salford City in the FA Cup the week prior.

Although the match was never completed, it was the Slovakian’s first National League outing for Pools as Ben Killip was left out of the matchday squad entirely.

"We’d spoken to the players about making team selections difficult for us and they’ve done that in easy ways and tough ways,” Challinor said.

“Henrich did brilliantly at Salford and it’s not about anything Ben has done wrong. By no means are we saying him conceding five goals against Torquay is a slight on him by any stretch because he’s done really well at the start of the season but we just felt Henrich’s performance at Salford merited an opportunity in the league.

"It’s the same with other players, Tom Crawford started after doing well in the previous game.

"Players will make most decisions for us but sometimes there will be heart and head decisions and we just felt that was the right way to go.

“It’s a difficult situation to manage but that’s always the case with the nature of the squad we have and I believe in the players to make our jobs difficult because otherwise, they wouldn’t be at the club.

"There’s healthy competition and we’ve got to strive to improve those standards and keep pushing each other.

"If you’re conceding goals at the back, the likelihood is you’ll lose your place and the same goes if you’re not scoring at the other end.”

Ravas almost marked his league debut for Pools with a shock goal as a drop-kick from inside his own box forced a good save from Eastleigh goalkeeper Joe McDonnell.

“That summed up the conditions, we thought their goalkeeper was struggling to be fair but he did well to get back and tip it over,” Challinor added.

“The conditions weren’t fitting to play nice football in but we have to be adaptable because we’re up on the North East coast of a country where the climate and weather is unpredictable and can be horrific at times like it was on Saturday.”

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