KEVIN Henderson has been sat on the bench so much this season he could have splinters in his backside!

In 23 outings for the striker, 22 have come from the substitutes' bench.

But the arrival of Paul Smith and Henderson galvanised Pool on Saturday and they finally exerted some pressure on Bristol Rovers in the last half hour.

But Henderson and Pool couldn't find a way through and now the popular striker is hoping he's done enough to earn a starting berth next week.

"I got a bit longer than I normally do which was good - it's normally Henderson 75 or 80 minutes, like a new part of my name,'' he said.

"It was very frustrating for us out there. I thought something might drop for us in the last 15 minutes, but we didn't play well. We needed that little bit of luck, but it never happened.

"I can't really take that much heart from my display because we lost. Personally, there is some satisfaction from going on and helping make a difference, but I want to go on and help us get a point or three points.''

Now Pool will have their eyes on Teletext at 9.30 tonight to discover the outcome of Rushden's game in hand against Rochdale.

But Henderson said: "Rushden play on Monday night, but it's all in our own hands. I'm not bothered what they do - as long as they don't catch us!

"If we keep picking points up like the way we should be then who cares about other results? We don't have to look at what other teams are doing.

"There's not a drop of pressure on us at all. We've gone through the whole season and haven't had a bad spell.

"People say we did before Christmas, but we only lost at Rochdale and Hull.

"I don't know any team that hasn't had a bad spell at one time, but what makes a good team is how quickly the bad spell is over.''

Read more about Hartlepool here.