The surprise Hartlepool United admission from Swindon Town head coach Scott Lindsey

Hartlepool make the long trip to Wiltshire this weekend to the County Ground to take on a Swindon side looking to break into the play-off places with a win while Curle’s team have their own issues at the foot of the League Two table.

Pools are yet to win away from home this season, having won just once in 14 league games, but Robins manager Lindsey is readying Swindon for a tough test after revealing his confusion of how the Curle’s side will line-up.

“It will be a real challenge because I don’t even know what formation they’ll play if I’m honest with you because he’s [Curle] changed formation in nearly every game,” Lindsey told BBC Radio Wiltshire.

“That’s going to be difficult to prep the team for in terms of how we press and what we do without the ball when we don’t really know what team they’re going to pick, or certainly what formation they’re going to play. It’s a challenge straight away.”

Lindsey added on Hartlepool’s interim boss, Curle: “He’s an experienced manager. He’s obviously won promotion out of this league already with Northampton a few years back.

“It’s going to be a tough game and I’m sure we’ll have to be at our best in order for us to get anything from the game.”

And Lindsey was quick to dismiss any potential after-effects Pools might be facing in the wake of their 6-0 Papa Johns Trophy nightmare against Everton under-21s with the Robins boss referencing his own side's defeat in the competition. Swindon were beaten 3-0 by League One outfit Bristol Rovers and Lindsey is expecting a different Hartlepool team from the one who were humbled by the Premier League academy side.

“It’s a different game now. We have to concentrate on the next game. We lost 3-0,” said Lindsey.

“It’s a different competition. They made some changes from their starting line-up and they made a lot of changes around 65 minutes so I would presume the team which are going to play on Saturday will pretty much be a different team to what played on Tuesday night.”