Hartlepool: Back four will be put to the test

Today, their back four will be put to the test again when Solihull arrive at the Super 6 Stadium.

The opposition, like Wrexham the last time Pools played at home, can go top of the National League table today.

But Pools saw off the Dragons in an entertaining game and Hignett, accepting his side will be tested again this afternoon, is looking forward to the challenge.

Pools missed Fraser Kerr at Eastleigh last weekend, the centre-half forced out of the side after feeling ill during the pre-match warm-up.

“We’ve had some tough games, we’ve played Fylde, Eastleigh, Wrexham and now Solihull and they are all teams that are up there,’’ said Hignett “This will be a different type of game I think, Solihull post a different type of threat.

“They’re a big side, they like to get the ball into the box, but every team will have their own threat from set-pieces and from crosses in this league. It’s how you deal with them.

“We’ll be fully prepared for Solihull but I’m concentrating on what we do and how we deal with the ball and the problems we can cause for them because I know we are capable of doing so.

“It’s a massive game for us; Solihull are wanting to get out of this league.’’

Pools are adopting a positive style under Hignett, who encourages his attacking unit to get at the opposition at will

And the manager added: “It’s a tough league and they’ll play a certain way and we have to be ready for it. There’s no right or wrong way to get out of this league, there’s loads of different styles and plenty of different ways to do it.

“I have my own ideas on how I want to do it.

“Tim Flowers (Solihull manager) is someone I’ve known as he was a goalkeeping coach at Leicester while I was there.

“They’ve had a great season and they’ve put a good run of results together, but it’s up to us to play as well as we can and give them problems and give them problems to make them worried about us.

“It was frustrating last week. I had a look back at set pieces and all season we’ve only conceded from three. I’m not going to put it down to it being one of them games because we can’t do that. We’ve got to improve and get nastier in our defending.’’

Kerr will return today, while Aaron Cunningham is available again after falling awkwardly against Wrexham. Myles Anderson is likely to revert to left-back.

Hignett added: “Sometimes instead of defending the ball we have to defend the man. Other teams do it and the best defenders in the world do it. You can’t let the attacker get a run on you.

“Last week, within a minute and a half and we’re 1-0 down. That gave us a hill to climb, and in the second half to concede again, that gives us a mountain to climb. We’ve got to be more professional, committed and concentrated, which I think will come. I’ve got a really young group of players who want to learn and are willing to learn so, as long as they keep listening and putting practice into what we’re doing, we’ll be fine.

“If you look at the game we carved them open. We could have scored four or five. You cannot play that well and not win the game. I’d have been disappointing drawing it, to lose it like that after playing so well it shows me that we are not quite where we need to be yet.’’