York City boss Adam Hinshelwood reveals trio of injury doubts ahead of all-important trip to Hartlepool United

The Minstermen head into Saturday's game hot on the heels of National League leaders Barnet but know that they can ill-afford too many slip-ups between now and the end of the season if they're to pip the Bees to the top prize. Having narrowly avoided relegation last season, Hinshelwood, backed by the considerable resources of mother-and-son ownership duo Julie-Anne and Matthew Uggla, set about on a complete overhaul of his squad. The former Worthing boss returned to West Sussex to plunder his old side, luring Ollie Pearce, who is the division's top scorer having bagged 21 goals in 33 games, and Joe Felix, one of the league's most versatile and reliable performers, to North Yorkshire. Hinshelwood also signed highly rated goalkeeper Harrison Male, who enjoyed two impressive campaigns at Worthing before being voted player of the season at Dorking Wanderers last term, as well as former Rochdale attacker Tyrese Sinclair. As if that wasn't enough, York shelled out a rumoured £350,000 to sign forward Josh Stones, who scored twice against Pools for Oldham last season, in January.

York's spending spree has paid off, although the Minstermen, who have a game in hand on the leaders, will have to go some if they're to overhaul the six point gap between themselves and Barnet. Hinshewood's side have shown one or two signs of nerves of late, dropping points in four of their last nine league matches, but will fancy their chances against a Pools side who have endured a difficult run since their statement win over Oldham on New Year's Day, winning just one of their previous nine games.

However, Pools will be hoping that home advantage might help give them the edge, while Hinshelwood hinted his side could have decisions to make regarding the fitness of a number of their key players. Speaking to York's official club website after his team scored twice in added time to edge past relegation-threatened Maidenhead in midweek, the former Brighton defender suggested that Josh Stones, Dan Batty and Tyrese Sinclair were all struggling with slight hamstring issues. Quite to what extent those were genuine concerns and not mere mind games will be revealed this weekend, with Pools fans hoping the title-chasers might be forced into changes.

"There's a lot of illness and stiffness around," he said.

"Stonesy (Josh Stones) is stretching his hamstring, Batts (Dan Batty) is stretching his hamstring and Ty (Tyrese Sinclair) was stretching his hamstring at the end there. Recovery is going to be really important.

"After the last two performances we'll go there with a lot of confidence. Showing the togetherness we have gives us a good platform. I think the group's really galvanised with the changes that we've made. Everyone's together, we're all pulling in the same direction. That's vital, it's going to be vital. As long as we're doing that and we can sprinkle a bit of quality in our play, that's important.

"We'll go to Hartlepool and we know they'll be a tough team to play against. We've got to demand the same level of quality and be a little bit more ruthless with our finishing."