Luke James ready for Hartlepool United's National League season to start

The 24-year-old has featured in all six of Pools’ friendlies so far, amassing just over 300 minutes of playing time including 80 minutes in the 4-2 win against Sheffield United under-23s on Saturday.

And with just one friendly left to play at home to Macclesfield Town on Saturday (3pm kick-off), James feels ready to tackle the 2019-20 season.

“Everyone wants the season to start now but that’s what the pre-season games are there for to build us up and get us ready which we feel we are,” he said.

“We’ve got some really tasty games coming up so it’ll be good to play in them. But I feel good and probably like I could have done more (minutes) which is a good sign as well.”

James also believes the busy pre-season will help set the side up for the hectic start to the league campaign.

He added: “Playing all these games early has come as a relief to me!

“You want to be playing as many games as possible and playing seven matches, most being Saturday-Tuesday, it’s perfect for us because you want to play football, it’s your job and the more minutes on the pitch the better.

“The games will come thick and fast, the first four or five games are Saturday, Tuesday’s so you’re just chucked straight into it but I think we’ve got the squad to combat that.”