MATCH PREVIEW: HARTLEPOOL UNITED

The Wood are on their travels again this Saturday, Match 10 (3pm) when they face Hartlepool United, in the National League. Here’s our preview……..

Match Details

Entrance fees for the game are as follows: Adults £20; Seniors (60+)/Students/Under 19s/Armed Forces £10; under 16’s £5 and under 5s Free.

Tickets are available to purchase on the day, either through the ticket office, or on the turnstiles. Card payment is available.

Team News

The Wood have no fresh injury concerns going into the fixture.

Both Tom Champion and Kane Smith will be in contention to the return to the starting lineup, having trained all week.

Form Guide

The Wood drew their last league fixture, almost two weeks ago, away to Woking 0-0.

It is the only match in their last five that they haven’t won, placing them nicely as one of the in-form sides in the division.

Bruno Andrade remains the division’s second top scorer, with 16 league goals.

Angelo Balanta has been climbing the goal-scoring charts himself, having netted nine times this campaign.

The Wood remain in fifth place in the National League but have a game in hand on three of the teams above them.

Having sacked manager Craig Harrison in February, Mathew Bates and Paul Jenkins have been placed in temporary charge of the side, as they search for a new boss.

The Pools have lost four of their last five matches in the National League, but will have been boosted by a 3-2 win over Woking, in amongst those five.

From the Dugout – Luke Garrard  

“It is going to be a tough affair. I went and watched them on Tuesday night against Aldershot, and for the first 20/25 minutes, it was quite an even affair, but after that, I felt that they came out on top.

“They have got good quality in their ranks, they have got the likes of (Rhys) Oates, (Jake) Cassidy, (Michael) Woods and their Skipper (Carl) Magnay, and they are hurting.

“They are hurting because they are sitting just a couple of places above the relegation battle and they are fighting for their lives.

“They are a club who have got issues behind the scenes and I can imagine that they are going to have a siege mentality for the remainder of the season, and they will think that it is them against the world.

“We need to take that all into consideration; we worked on them today and we feel that they have got some weaknesses, but they have definitely got some strengths.

“We done the work on that today and I just feel that the boys are chomping at the bit at the minute and I am looking forward to them getting going on Saturday.”