CRAIG HIGNETT hopes Hartlepool United will still have something to play for at the right end of the table by the time Doncaster Rovers travel to Victoria Park next May.

Pools, who will start the new season on August 6 against Colchester at home, will close the League Two campaign against the division's new-boys Doncaster.

And, after a couple of years battling to beat the drop, Hignett hopes Hartlepool can build on an impressive start under his watch last season by pushing in the right direction next time around.

Hignett, whose side have been drawn away at Preston in the EFL Cup in the week commencing August 8, said: “There is a lot of football and a lot of games to be played before then but it would be nice to think that there was something riding on that game.

“The first priority for us is to start the season well and not get carried away; we have some hard work ahead and we’ll see where we are when that fixture comes along but it looks a tasty one.”

Doncaster will be one of the favourites to challenge for promotion back to League One and Hartlepool travel to the Keepmoat Stadium on November 19.

By that time Hignett wants Hartlepool – starting at home for only the third time in eight seasons – to have got their season up and running smoothly, with away dates at Exeter and Crewe to follow the visit of Colchester on the opening weekend.

The Hartlepool boss said: “It’s real now, isn’t it? You can start putting in the fixtures and planning where you’re going to be. I’m really looking forward to the players coming back in to training next week because I am ready to start work again – it feels like we have been off for ages even though it hasn’t actually been that long!

Pools have signed two players from Grimsby Town this summer – Toto Nsalia and Padraig Amond – and they will head to Blundell Park to face their former club on October 1. Hartlepool are at home on Boxing Day, when they will entertain Blackpool, and also on New Year’s Eve, when they host Morecambe.