'We're looking at things this week' – Dave Challinor hopeful of signing forward for Hartlepool United

With James unlikely to return until the end of the season, Pools are left with just Gime Toure and Nicke Kabamba as their senior striking options.

While Challinor has been busy trying to bring in another striker, nothing has came to fruition so far though he’s hopeful of some more positive news in the near future.

“We’re looking at things this week and we need to get bodies in particularly at the top end of the pitch,” he said.

“We hoped to do something earlier. We’re always going to be limited by the fact that we’re only allowed five loans in a matchday squad.

“We’re still actively trying to find a forward and looking there. Gime has done a job but I think he can be a better centre-forward than he currently is even though it’s not something that comes overly natural to him so we’ll have to work on that.

“We need to try and bring one in certainly at the top end of the pitch.

“We’ve got a list of maybe eight players but as things go you cross them off and hope one at the top of the list comes to fruition. There’s been a lot of work and phone calls using the contacts we have to try and give us something to get on that run.”

With Romoney Crichlow-Noble returning to Huddersfield Town on Monday morning, Pools currently have three players in on loan which they could look to extend.

“We’ve got decisions to make with Gary Liddle, Shelts [Mark Shelton], Tyler [Hamilton] with their loans,” Challinor added.

“We also need to see what is happening with the lads we’ve had out on loan as well.

“It will be dependent on those things, we want to try and give the squad a little bit more.

“Defensively we’ve got decent numbers but we’ll see how Kenton Richardson is because it looks as though he’ll miss Eastleigh with his ankle.”