Story of the day: Hartlepool United 12-0 Brandon United – Luke Williams nets four on first start

Pools were 7-0 to the good at half-time following goals from Claudio Ofosu, Aaron Cunningham, a trialist left-back and braces from Luke Williams and Mason Bloomfield.

Williams netted his hat-trick soon after the restart and made it 9-0 with his fourth of the game on the 70-minute mark. A late double from substitute Mark Shelton made it double figures with Gavan Holohan scoring on the full-time whistle to make it 12-0.

Dave Challinor’s side were set to host Blyth Spartans on Saturday afternoon before the match had to be cancelled due to someone from Blyth testing positive for coronavirus.

As a result, an impromptu friendly against Brandon United was arranged at the last minute.

And Challinor chose a strong side, featuring two trialists and Williams starting his first match for the club since signing permanently over two years ago.

The 27-year-old is still looking to earn a new contract at Pools and his display would have done his chances of securing a deal no harm.

But it's ultimately the minutes on the field that will be most important to both Challinor and the player as he lasted just over 70-minutes before being substituted.

The only absentee for Pools was Rhys Oates, who was rested as a precaution after experiencing a bit of swelling around his knee following surgery last season.

The match would ultimately have no real competitive benefit for Pools, who swept aside their Northern League Divison Two opposition inside the opening 20-minutes.

Pools were using the match as a trial run for their coronavirus protocol ahead of the new National League season. As a result, club personnel were granted access to the match as a strict safety measure.

Prior to their opening match of the season on October 3, Hartlepool will round off their pre-season by hosting a Middlesbrough XI next Friday (25 September) before travelling north to Gateshead the following day.

Pools line-up: Killip (Young 58), Trialist, Odusina, Cunningham (Liddle 46), Trialist (Ferguson 58), Crawford (Featherstone 72), Donaldson (Shelton 72), Williams (Holohan 72), MacDonald (Grey 58), Bloomfield (Parkhouse 72), Ofosu (Molyneux 46)

A message from the Editor:

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to the Hartlepool Mail website and enjoy unlimited access to local news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit here to sign up. You can subscribe to the newspaper with 20% off here. Thank you.