John Askey provides significant Josh Umerah update amid interest in Hartlepool United striker

Umerah returned to action for Hartlepool in the weekend draw with Blyth Spartans before featuring against Northern League side Redcar Athletic on Tuesday where he scored his first goal of pre-season.

Umerah swept home well to give Hartlepool the lead after they had fallen behind to a deflected Layton Watts strike in the opening minutes of the game at Green Lane.

The 26-year-old was starting alongside new signing Emmanuel Dieseruvwe for the first time and teed up his strike partner for the equaliser soon after Redcar’s opener.

Askey replaced Umerah at the break as Hartlepool went on to secure a 5-1 win over the Northern League team before revealing he remains hopeful Umerah will stay at the club this season after a number of rejected offers.

The Hartlepool boss recently confirmed the club had turned down 'good offers' for the man who scored 15 times last season but can now see the striker remaining with the club.

"Yeah [I'm confident he will stay],” Askey told BBC Radio Tees.

"We have turned down bids and that shows the ambition of the club. It would have been quite easy for the chairman to have accepted the bids.

"If something comes in that you can’t refuse then it’s a different matter and we can use the money to further improve the squad and it’ll give Josh the chance to play at a higher level, but I don’t think it will happen now which, for me as manager, it’s nice to have a player like Josh.”

Askey added: “Josh looked sharper, he took his goal really well, as well as making Mani’s goal.

“He's a little bit behind [in terms of his fitness] so it's important this week that we work him hard to get him up to scratch because it doesn't look as though Josh is going anywhere so he needs to, as he did today, show the attitude he did and just get on with it and do what he does best and that’s scoring goals.”