We preview Saturday's big game...
Hartlepool United
Sky Bet League 2
Saturday 22nd August 2015
The Lamex Stadium, Stevenage, SG2 8RH
Referee: Charles Breakspear
Kick-off: 3pm
Ticket news:
Advance tickets are available until 5pm Friday 21st August in-store and until midnight online. On the day of the game tickets are on sale in the ticket office and also at the cash turnstiles.
Team news:
There will be no immediate returns to the team on Saturday, although Chris Whelpdale is getting ever closer to a comeback having been back in training this week.
Ronnie Henry was back in the training ground on Thursday after spending the last few weeks away with mumps. We are hopeful he will be able to recover in time for next Saturday’s trip to Dagenham and Redbridge.
Rohdell Gordon is also back in training following a hamstring injury that he picked up after returning from training camp in Sevilla.
Jamie McCombe, David McAllister and Adam Marriott are all still a minimum of a few weeks away whilst Ben Kennedy won't be back for a few months despite making good progress since his surgery.
View from the dressing room:
The story so far…
Hartlepool have made a storming start to the season, winning all three of their league games as well as a Capital One Cup victory at Fleetwood.
First up the Pools comfortably beat Morecambe at home before winning 1-0 at Fleetwood in the cup. They had to come back from behind to win at York and new signing Billy Paynter has got off to an excellent start, scoring three goals across both competitions. Scott Fenwick’s second half strike sealed the 1-0 win at home to Newport which puts them joint-top of the table, in stark contrast to last season.
Head to Head:
Boro are yet to lose against Hartlepool across seven competitive meetings between the two sides. Stevenage have won five, drawn two with a 10-3 aggregate score line.
Last season the double was done over Pools after Chris Whelpdale’s second half strike from sealed victory on the season's opening day and Ben Kennedy’s double in February helped Boro to a 3-1 win.
Our last meeting:
Betting with Sky Bet:
Boro are just over evens to win on Saturday; 23/20 with our partners Sky Bet.
Brett Williams is yet to get off the mark this season, but he is 11/2 to score first and 2/1 to score anytime.
Sign up to Sky Bet via the attached links to help the club earn some extra revenue!
Live commentary, social media & online coverage:
Can’t make it? Listen to the game live on the Boro Player HD service from 14:50 tomorrow where Steve Watkins will be leading the commentary, as usual.
Our Twitter page is the place to be locked in on a matchday as we provide live minute-by-minute updates during the game as well as all of the up-to-date info and plenty of fun too.
All of our key content is linked from our Twitter account so if you are following us, you won’t miss a thing.
If you aren’t following us on Instagram yet then you should be – all the best photos from before, during and after the game will be uploaded here across the weekend.
Extensive highlights and reaction will be available for Boro Player HD subscribers whilst shorter snippets will be on our YouTube page, free of charge.