Match Preview

Hartlepool Rovers are back on the road on Saturday when they visit Gateshead (kick off 2.15pm).

The Whites had a far-from-convincing return from their three successive games on the New Friarage with a single win over bottom-of-the-table Ponteland, not what player-coach Steve Smith had in mind.

Their opponents have between two and four games in hand on the five teams above them in Durham Northumberland One as a result of some bad weather postponements.

The Friaragemen need to bounce back after last Saturday’s 48-19 thrashing on home turf at the hands of Guisborough. Instead of Rovers doing the double, after a 19-18 win at Belmangate, the hosts instead turned in a dire performance.

The return of Ryan Foreman can only help Smith and his players to lift their game after the Guisborough thrashing and, with a decent record at Eastwood Gardens, a win isn’t impossible but it will require the White Shirts to compete for the full 80 minutes and shine in both attack and defence.

Rovers have been boosted by skipper Callum Whitehead being passed fit to play having been injured in the Guisborough defeat whilst Smith has named himself to start at loosehead.

Rovers: S Railton, Coutts, S Barnfield, Gunn, A Smith, Foreman, Pelser, S Smith, Maguire, Lloyd, Langley, D Smith, Little, Wood, Whitehead (c). Subs: Ross, Burnside, O’Callaghan