A DETERMINED Tom Crawford is looking to hit the ground running for next season as Hartlepool United’s pre-season preparations continue with a second friendly this afternoon.

Pools kicked off their summer campaign with a 2-0 friendly defeat to Scottish side Hibernian where Crawford was withdrawn in the opening stages with a wrist injury. However, following medical checks, the injury doesn’t appear to be serious.

Having spent last week in Portugal for a warm weather training camp, Pools are now on home soil with friendlies lined up. They face Northern League side Billingham Synthonia this afternoon following by games against Marske United, Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland.

Duo Euan Murray and Jamie Sterry will miss the friendly this afternoon through injury.

After last season’s less than inspiring end to the campaign which cost Graeme Lee his job as manager, the players have had an extended break before the pre-season schedule, something that was missing due to the short turnaround from last season’s promotion from the National League. With the players having a much needed rest and the chance to put their feet up, the midfielder hopes that they won’t suffer from burnout in the closing stages of the campaign like they did last season.

Crawford said: “It’s nice to have a break. Obviously last season having a short window between seasons, I think it took it’s toll on a few lads at the end of this season. With results, it was tough but this break has been just to chill out and put our feet up. I’m pretty much raring to go again now.

“You are still doing the stuff to tick you over but you are not running yourself into the ground. You need to have that rest period where you just stop. It comes from the last game of the season. It’s just about giving yourself that recovery time and giving your body the chance to recover and then get back into your normal stuff.

“I would reiterate the short time we had off between seasons and in the end we were picking up a lot of injuries to important players towards the back end of the season.

“EFL security was the main aim of the season in everyone’s eyes at the club so when we achieved that, it was a big weight off everyone’s shoulders but there was still ten games to go.

“All that accumulated into the end of season that we had but overall, it was a positive season for the club back in the Football League. Obviously the cup runs, securing the EFL status. Now we can just build on that now. A new manager has come in so we can knuckle down now and crack on.”

New manager Paul Hartley is continuing to run the rule over his players whilst looking to add to his squad before the start of the season. The Pools boss added ex-Celtic full-back Brody Patterson and former Bradford City midfielder Callum Cooke to the squad this week. 

Kyle Letheren, Alex Lacey, Euan Murray, Mohammed Niang and Jake Hastie have also arrived at the club from north of the border with Hartley expected to further add to his squad before the start of the season.