Dave Challinor discusses goalkeeper Ben Killip's return to the Hartlepool United starting line-up and what that means for Mitchell Beeney

The England C international had been ‘taken out of the spotlight’ according to Dave Challinor following the 2-2 draw at home to Barrow in what was Pools’ final match of 2019.

Non-contract goalkeeper Mitchell Beeney played the seven games that followed before Killip was handed another opportunity.

On the decision, Challinor said: “They’re all tough decisions.

“Sometimes you’ll get a gut feeling of when to make a change and when people need dipping back in.

“We obviously took Ben out of the spotlight – I think he’s made some decisions over the course of us being here that have resulted in us conceding goals and he probably just needed to look on from the outside.

“We felt it was the right time to put him back in and in terms of the game as a whole, it was quite a nice game for him to be reintroduced.

“It was comfortable for him and a clean sheet which will hopefully do him the world of good going into a different sort of challenge next week where he will have to potentially be really important for us next week in order for us to go to Solihull and get three points.

“He’ll be tested in a big way but it’s a big positive for us. We know if we can keep a clean sheet then we’ve got a really good chance of winning because we create a lot of chances.”

After a spell out, Killip is now set to remain in the starting 11 as Beeney looks to fight for his place back in the side.

“Nothing has changed with Mitch, he is still a non-contract player and was at the game,” Challinor added.

“We’ll discuss why we made the decision we made. But Ben has responded and trained really well to being left out and taken it in the right manner and challenged to get back into the team.

“Now Mitch has got to do the same.”