HARTLEPOOL United could hand debuts to Marcus Carver and Jake Hull against Bristol Rovers this afternoon with the pair joining the club earlier this week.

Striker Carver sealed a permanent move to Pools from National League side Southport after impressing in non-league with 12 goals this season while Hull has moved from League One side Rotherham United on loan until the end of the season.

Pools go into the game with a clean bill of health and the pair will have to force their way into a side that's recently performed two cup upsets in a week against Bolton Wanderers in the Papa John's Trophy and Blackpool in the FA Cup.

However, Carver and Hull have trained with their new team mates for the first time this week and caught the eye of manager Graeme Lee.

“The first training session was Tuesday. They’ve come in and you can see the attitude straight away is good. He’s (Carver) straight in mixing with the lads and he likes to get to know people.

“He’s trained hard and with an intensity. He’s not come from full-time football so his match fitness will be one of our main areas we need to do to get him up to speed to where our lads are.

“His attitude, you can see straight away how he wants to work and play.

“He’s (Hull) got a challenge to come in. He gives us that little bit of height, a little bit of dominance. He’ll impact at some point. If it’s this weekend or if not but he’s someone who’s come in and added strength to the defensive.

“The lads have been defending. We’ve had some clean sheets in the league and we want to build on that so it’s not disrupting everything but everyone knows they are fighting for places and you’ve got to push each other. The group of lads we’ve got do that."

Meanwhile, striker Jordan Cook won't be available for this weekend's game against Bristol Rovers but is expected to return to training next week.

Lee added: “You don’t want to push anything regarding muscles injuries. We have to be cautious but we did have a timeframe of two weeks. He is progressing well, spoke to him the other day and he was happy with the way things were going so hopefully he might be integrated back into training next week."