This is why Gary Liddle was absent from Hartlepool United's draw with Altrincham

The 34-year-old was absent from Pools’ matchday squad against Altrincham on Tuesday evening, which ended in a 1-1 draw at Victoria Park.

Liddle had been out with a groin injury before returning to the starting 11 against Ilkeston. He got a full 90 minutes under his belt, which suggested he got through the match unscathed.

However, Liddle suffered a reaction after the 6-0 victory and was forced to watch on from the sidelines as Ben Killip saved an injury-time penalty to maintain Pools’ unbeaten start to the season.

“We’re OK, “ Challinor told The Mail when asked about the latest injury news.

"Lids had a reaction from the game on Saturday, so he’ll be out for a period - I’m not sure how long but aside from him, hopefully, we’ll have no reaction after tonight’s game when we’re back in training tomorrow.”

Also missing from the matchday squad on Tuesday was Rhys Oates, Josh MacDonald and Luke Williams, while Henrich Ravas, Tom Crawford, Joe Grey, Mason Bloomfield and Claudio Ofosu took to the bench.

Challinor admitted he had a selection headache in the build-up in the game against Alty, so with the beauty of hindsight, does he stand by his team selection?

He said: “You do things on merit. You look at not just tonight’s game, you’ve got to look a little bit further in terms of what we have coming up and players missing.

“From what we did on Saturday and what we saw on Monday in training, we played a team we thought could win the game. There was the opportunity to do that in the first-half.

“Looking at the second-half, I’m probably wishing I had five defenders to pick and can make more subs to get more solidity on the pitch, which is probably one thing we’re a little short of but we’ll work with what we’ve got and make sure we can become that.”