MICKY Barron yesterday completed his second 90 minute appearance of the season.

The Hartlepool United captain played for the reserves in their single-goal defeat to Lincoln as he steps up his return from a pre-season knee operation.

Hugh Robertson, who has yet to play for the first team this campaign, played 45 minutes.

Barron also played in a reserve friendly at Scarborough last week and, while boss Martin Scott won't rush back his skipper, he will soon have his services to call upon.

There is no immediate need for Barron to return after four successive victories in League One and the FA Cup, but his return would be welcomed.

With suspensions now over for Ben Clark, Mark Tinkler and Micky Nelson, Gavin Strachan is back from a loan spell at Stockport and Neill Collins is available after Sunderland refused to allow him to be cup tied last week.

"We are starting to look a lot stronger," Scott said. "We are free of suspension and Neill Collins is available, so we have a few options.

"There has been a lot of talk about our bad start compared to last year but we are now in exactly the same position as we were last season and after the amount of problems we have had, it is not a bad place to be.''

l Adam Boyd and Dimi Konstantopoulos will be in the town's Asda store from 6pm-7pm tonight signing copies of the Poolie Pride CD single. The CD, which features reworked versions of Two Little Boys and Never Say Die, has charted at No 19 in the official midweek chart.