HARTLEPOOL United go looking for home comforts this afternoon, boosted by the return of Kevin Henderson.

After successive home wins over York and Darlington, Pool have stuttered on their travels with defeats at Rochdale and Brighton in the last seven days.

The six-goal leading scorer has been sidelined since scoring in the derby win over the Quakers a fortnight ago following an operation to remove a lump in his neck.

Henderson suffered a knee injury in the derby triumph, but knew he was on the sidelines in the coming weeks after noticing a growth on his neck. The former Burnley front-runner wanted to keep his operation quiet, but admitted: "The physio told me to get it checked out and it has now been removed.''

Henderson's return was welcomed by assistant manager Colin West. "It's nice to have him back, we have missed him,'' said West. "Against Darlington in the first few minutes he closed down two of their lads and that soon got everyone going.

"It gave the crowd a real lift as well as the rest of the lads and he soon got his reward with a goal.

"He's got six this season and had three-in-a-row before being forced out. It was a good little run and it's a shame it was broken.

"Now it's just a case of seeing how he reacts because he has been away for a while. But he has been OK in training and getting involved with the rest of the lads.

"Within a couple of days of the operation he was jogging around on his own just to keep his fitness going and he will be keen to make an impression.''

Pool will revert to a 3-5-2 line-up after starting with Anth Lormor as the sole forward in a 4-5-1 formation at Brighton on Wednesday.

That system, however, only lasted 20 minutes as Pool found themselves trailing and West admitted: "I went to watch Brighton a couple of weeks ago and know they are a strong side. We wanted to frustrate them, but the early goal meant we had to change it. By the time we did it was 2-0 and we are chasing the game.

"But I think we showed some real character to come back and it was when we were pushing for a third that they caught us out and scored again.

"We were soon down to ten men and then it's very difficult.''

Norwegian Tim Sperrevik was red carded for foul and abusive language after scoring his first goal for Pool and West said: "Tim was wound up constantly by their defender and when he was spat on he reacted.

"He has to learn to handle situations like that, but it is disappointing that the referee failed to take any action against the Brighton players.

"It's disappointing that we have lost twice in a week, but now we have to put that behind us. We have been caught cold at both away games in the last week and we have to try to do the same against Plymouth.''

After this afternoon's clash, Pool are on the road again on Tuesday, when they go to Brian Little's Hull, just five months after their last visit when Pool triumphed 3-0 on the last day of the season to clinch a play-off spot.

"It's another difficult away game,'' said West. "But we worried them last season and they have the same manager and same players. In footballing terms, taking out the summer break, it's only a few games since we beat them and hopefully they will remember what we did to them that day.''

Aston Villa striker Neil Tarrant has moved to York City on loan. Pool boss Chris Turner enquired about the former Darlington man earlier this month. Former Pool forward Stephen Halliday has moved to Carlisle after a spell at Doncaster