MICHAEL Ledger has completed a season-long loan deal at Hartlepool United.

The centre-half has moved from Sunderland, where he has been a regular in the club’s under-23s.

He spent time on loan in Norway with Viking Stavanger last season.

Pools are without defender Liam Donnelly this week as he is on international duty with Northern Ireland under-21s, while Scott Harrison is suffering from a foot injury.

Harrison damaged a metatarsal in last Saturday’s home defeat to Fylde, but was fit to start at Guiseley on Monday.

He was forced off in the second-half and Harrison admitted: "Scotty shouldn't have played.

"But he's a warrior, he said 'I want to play' and he's gone out there and defended for his life and we've got 75 minutes out of him.

"He deserves a huge pat on the back.

"Yes, he's made a couple of mistakes and he'd be the first to admit that, but one thing you can say about him he's a man and he'll not shy away from a challenge.

"Jake Cassidy shouldn't have played either because of his foot injury but it's this that makes me proud, he's taken his pain killers and got out there for the club."

Boss Harrison feels Monday’s first victory can be a springboard to better things.

After two points from a possible 15, Pools needed victory and the manager said: "You can see the difference not going behind makes by the way we started the second half.

"We had a chance straight away, scored and then had another opportunity - it's great to have a foundation.

"We are perceived as the biggest team in the league and that we'll steam-roller teams.

"But that's not football, it's all about having a foundation and then that gives you the platform to go on and win.

"That's what we did on Monday and that's what we'll look to do every week.’’

And he added: "I do understand the frustration of the fans but they have to stick with us.

"They stuck with us on Monday and I'm asking them to stick with us.

"There might be four, five weeks of grinding out results, until we can get our momentum going.

"We need to get up the league and then we can fine-tune things.

"The fans have been frustrated, but no-one has been more frustrated than me."

Ledger is in contention for Saturday’s game with Maidstone at Victoria Park – and Pools have knocked admission prices to just £5 for the game.

Chairman Pam Duxbury said: Our fans have had a lot of miles to cover during August and we wanted to show our gratitude.

“We were very pleased to get our first win of the season on Monday and now we want to build on that back at The Vic this weekend so we want as many supporters there as possible to cheer the team on.”