COLIN COOPER has made three changes to his Hartlepool United side for their Capital One Cup trip to Port Vale.

Ryan Brobbel, Michael Woods and Jon Franks all start, with Marlon Harewood, Jack Compton and Stuart Parnaby missing out.

Parnaby suffered a foot injury in the defeat at Stevenage at the weekend, but Compton and Harewood are on the bench.

Goalkeeper Joel Dixon, signed on loan from Sunderland, is ineligible so Jonathan Barber is among the substitutes.

Vale’s Hartlepool-born midfielder Michael Brown, a summer transfer target for Cooper, is on the bench.

PORT VALE: Johnson; Veseli, Birchall, Dickinson, McGivern, Marshall, Williamson, Robertson, Lines, Pope, O’Connor. Subs: Neal, Duffy, Dodds, Brown, Jennings, Yates, Lloyd.

HARTLEPOOL UNITED: Flinders; Duckworth, Collins, Bates, Austin; Miller, Walker, Franks; Brobbel, James, Woods. Subs: Holden, Harewood, Compton, Hawkins, Richards, Smith, Barber (gk).

Referee: Graham Scott (Abingdon)