Story of the day: Hartlepool United 3-0 Macclesfield Town

Goals from Nicky Featherstone, Gime Toure and Michael Raynes proved the difference in what was an encouraging win ahead of the new season.

There was a few surprise omissions on the team sheet with Fraser Kerr, Myles Anderson, Liam Noble and Jason Kennedy all having no involvement with the latter two having played a part in all six previous pre-season matches.

It is likely those players will feature in Monday’s behind closed doors friendly at Sunderland having taken part in the pre-match warm-up.

After his dazzling cameo last Saturday, there was no sign of Luke Williams though he could potentially have some involvement at the Academy of Light.

It was a damp afternoon at the Super 6 Stadium when Hartlepool got the ball rolling in their brand new ‘dark bottle green and lime’ away shirt. And inside the opening 10-minutes they had a great chance to open the scoring when Toure burst into the box before being brought down.

The referee quickly pointed to the spot but the Frenchman couldn’t convert from 12-yards as he blazed his effort high into the Smith & Graham Stand.

Both sides then saw themselves thwarted by the crossbar but the game remained goalless up until half-time.

Soon after the restart, Macclesfield had their best opportunity of the game when Raynes almost spectacularly blasted the ball into his own net only for Ben Killip to react well and save the defender’s blushes.

The hosts then took a deserved lead just before the hour mark as a neat interchange between Gavan Holohan and Muir set up Featherstone to squeeze the ball into the bottom right corner via a deflection.

Toure then made amends for his penalty miss as he volleyed in Luke James’ cross to finish off a great move and make it 2-0.

Raynes then found the net at the right end as he nodded in Featherstone’s cross from the right to complete an impressive second half display.

It was just what United needed ahead of their competitive season opener on August 3.