NICKY DEVERDICS is back at Hartlepool United as Dave Jones looks for the climb away from the relegation zone to continue on the road this weekend.

Pools head to Notts County on Saturday in a crucial fixture for both teams at the wrong end of the table.

The Magpies are just a place below Hartlepool in the rankings and the two are looking to stay ahead of Leyton Orient, who are six shy of Jones’ side.

Loan signing Sean Kavanagh has had to return to Fulham for treatment and that has coincided with the Hartlepool boss calling Deverdics back.

"I've called Nicky back, we are short of senior players,” said Jones. “Losing Kav and everything else. It's been good for Nicky, he had to go out and play games and he's done well.

"Dover wanted to keep Nicky but I've had to drag him back. That tells you he's back in the squad, I wouldn't pull him back if he wasn't.”

Having spent more than 28 days at Dover, Hartlepool could end the loan agreement early. Deverdics will travel down to Nottingham with the squad and could figure.

Hartlepool have given themselves a boost in the last fortnight by recording back-to-back home wins over Exeter and Crewe.

The challenge they face is to continue that resurgence away from home, meaning winning for the first time on their travels since October.

Jones said: "It was great for our confidence, you couldn't have asked for any more, the only down side was not keeping a clean sheet against Exeter, the rest of it went really well.

"You can feel something is growing. We are in a bit of a transition period, a bit like Notts County, a lot of changes going on.

"We had seen some good performances without getting the results and rewards, we knew we were getting better we just needed to turn that into results.

"Watching Saturday back, we dominated a lot of the ball without hurting them but once the equaliser went in, the confidence seemed to flow through the veins.

"The players started to believe in it and the stuff which might have been breaking down started to come off in the second half.

"It was a fantastic result, the performance in the second half was much better than the first but it's all about results, I was so pleased they got their rewards for the hard work.”

Hartlepool's academy manager John Hewitson, meanwhile, and his friend Lee Dodgson were joined at Hartlepool's training ground with players before running from the Durham Racecourse Ground to Victoria Park.

The run is part of the pair's preparations to run from Land's End to John O'Groats in May.

The run is to raise money for the Alice House Hospice in Hartlepool and donations can be made via their Just Giving page at https://give.everydayhero.com/uk/lejog17

Dodgson has previously ran seven marathons in seven days and this latest adventure has ended with Hewitson signing up to join him.