Hartlepool United 0-0 Bristol Rovers LIVE: Team news, build-up and match updates from Victoria Park
and live on Freeview channel 276
Pools will be looking to continue their perfect start to the League Two season on home turf against a side who haven’t won a game on the road in 2021.
Dave Challinor’s side are without top scorer Tyler Burey after the Millwall loanee tore his hamstring during last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at Tranmere Rovers. The 20-year-old is now facing 12 weeks on the sidelines.
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Hide AdGavan Holohan – who has scored the winning goal in two of Pools’ three victories at The Vic so far this season – is also a doubt with a muscle injury.
Pools sit seventh in the table going into the game while Rovers find themselves in 16th having won two of their opening six games since dropping into the fourth tier.
But without their top two scorers, they will be turning to someone else to step up and provide the goals this afternoon.
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FULL-TIME: Hartlepool United 1 (Sterry 70’) Bristol Rovers 0
Key Events
- Pools XI: Killip; Molyneux (Smith 87), Francis-Angol, Liddle, Byrne, Sterry; Featherstone, Shelton, Daly; Olomola (Grey 83), Goodwin (Ogle 75)
- Pools subs: Cullen, Mitchell, Odusina, Jones
- Pools bookings: Byrne (11), Sterry (88)
- Bristol Rovers XI: Belsahw; Grant, Finley, Hughes, Clarke (Pitman 41), Anderton, Taylor Anderson, Evans, Saunders (Brown 73), Whelan
- Bristol Rovers subs: Ward, Coutts, Kilgour, Spence, Collins
- Bristol Rovers bookings: Finley (87)
- Referee: Rebecca Welch
- Attendance: 5,193
The Pools team has been confirmed!
Pools XI: Killip; Molyneux, Francis-Angol, Liddle, Byrne, Sterry; Featherstone, Shelton, Daly; Olomola, Goodwin
Subs: Cullen, Mitchell, Odusina, Smith, Jones, Ogle, Grey
Challinor on Bristol Rovers
“They’re a team who have been relegated and come down into the division as a big club expected to bounce straight back,” he said.
“But there has been a lot of change there and sometimes that takes time to settle down and progress. They come into the game on the back of a win which will help them.
“But we’re playing well, we’re in a good run of form where we’ve made The Vic a difficult place to come and we want to keep that.
“We expect a tough game against a squad that will be expecting to compete for promotion.”
Joey Barton on Pools
Barton said in his pre-match press conference: “We’re going up to a proud football club in Hartlepool, who have been promoted to the league and they will be keen to keep our poor away form going, so we’re going to have to scrap for every minute of the game.”
