Dave Challinor reveals how free week has helped Hartlepool United on the injury front ahead of Notts County clash

Luke James (groin), Luke Williams (hamstring), Fraser Kerr (back), Michael Raynes (thigh) and Adam Bale (knee) are not expected to feature in any of the upcoming matches against Notts County on Saturday and Boreham Wood the following weekend.

Pools’ scheduled National League match at Solihull Moors was called off due to Storm Dennis last weekend and manager Dave Challinor has been keen to make the most of an unscheduled weekend off.

And he’s done that by pushing his players with intense training sessions.

“Everyone is fine who would have been last weekend,” Challinor said.

“What we’ve had the luxury of doing, not that we needed to, but if anyone felt anything, we can pull them back a little bit.

“What we’ve done this week with having a weekend off, we worked the players hard Monday and Tuesday and Thursday will be another intense session leading towards Saturday.

“Hopefully we get the rewards this Saturday in terms of being able to produce a performance and get three points that we obviously weren’t able to do last weekend.It was a bit frustrating, last week we had a really good week and you hope to see how that pans out in reality.

“What it has allowed us to do is bed down more of the stuff and reinforce more of the things we want to do. It’s a different opponent this week, a different shape, philosophy and approach.”