RONNIE MOORE is expecting a difficult month for his Hartlepool United players.

Pools started the season with four wins, followed up with four defeats, although Tuesday’s loss was in a penalty shoot-out after a 90 minute draw with Sheffield United.

And, with treks to Wycombe, Exeter and Yeovil to come, as well as a home game with Cambridge, Moore accepts his squad will be tested.

Moore, without Michael Duckworth for tomorrow’s game at Wycombe with a hamstring injury but likely to have Carl Magnay and Michael Woods available, warned: "It's going to be a tough, tough month for us - it will be a tester for our lads.

"It's a month when we will see how good our defence is.

"We're going to be asked to do a lot of defending, we have three long away games and Cambridge at home as well.’’

But he has every confidence in his squad, following a decent start to the campaign in which they have showed their potential.

He added: "I keep saying it's about us. We respect the teams we play, we get our scouting reports on how they play, then we tell the players the shape, but it's about how we play.

"We had to make a change and got to two banks of four because the 3-4-3 wasn't working.

"What it showed was when we went 4-4-2, we had pace to burn when we broke.

"Jake Carroll looked more comfortable pushed on, he hasn't given us that so far, but there's plenty more to come from him. The pace he's got and the speed of Rhys (Oates) on the other side and Bings up top, we can counter-attack at will. The goal we scored on Tuesday was a fantastic finish."

Duckworth stretched his right hamstring in making a vital tackle on Tuesday evening, and is likely to be replaced by Magnay tomorrow.

While he’s impressed in a central midfield role for Pools, Magnay was Grimsby’s player of the year from right back last season.

"Ducky has been showing a bit of form, he can be a helluva player for us,’’ said Moore. "He gets forward well and has a little bit of pace.

"That was a tremendous tackle but he's done his hamstring and we can't do much about it.

"Josh came on and did reasonably well but he's then gone and got an injury in the reserves. It's a little problem we must solve.

"Magnay doesn't particularly like to be there [right-back] but he it a lot there for Grimsby last season.

"If that's all you've got that's it, we have to go with what we have at this present time.’’

Harry Worley has recovered from an ankle injury, but Trevor Carson (toe), Matthew Bates (Achilles), Brad Walker (thigh), Billy Paynter (hamstring) and Michael Woods (ankle) have all been out of late.