WITH the reshaping of Hartlepool United’s squad already underway, Ben Clark is relishing the chance to again play alongside Adam Boyd.

The pair were team-mates at Victoria Park for almost two seasons before the striker headed for Luton for a £500,000 fee.

But Pools have agreed a deal with Leyton Orient for the home-grown striker to return next season and Clark can’t wait to be reunited.

Pools season ended in a pitiful 4-1 loss at Bristol Rovers as they stayed out of the League One drop zone by a single point.

But Clark believes there will be plenty to look forward to when the new season comes around in August, with a fully-fit James Brown in tandem with Boyd to relish.

“Obviously, Boydy is a good signing – good player, scores goals and hopefully he’ll score a lot more for us,’’ he said.

“I think it softens the blow of Joel Porter going. Obviously Joel will be a massive miss.

He’s a fantastic player and a fantastic person – a really, really nice bloke – I wish him and his family all the best.

“I think it was the worstkept secret that he was going.

“You can see what the fans think of Joel and without his goals this year, we would have been in real trouble.

“But I think the Brown and Boyd partnership looks a good one on paper.

“You forget about Browny and what a massive player he is for us. If we get Browny back and Boydy scoring then that’s maybe £1m to £1.5m up front.

“That’s a good positive for next season and I think a lot of the lads will go away now this season is over, look at themselves and think they haven’t done enough.’’ Porter last week confirmed his summer departure and return to Australia, and while Clark is under contract at the club, plenty of his team-mates face an uncertain few days.

Boss Chris Turner is drawing up the retained list and Clark admitted: “It’s a nervy time because players will be sweating on whether they are going to get contracts or not, or get other clubs.

“It’s going to be hard for some of the players because who’s going to want players who are struggling in the league?

“There’s some good players here and we’ve just had a bad season really.

“In dribs and drabs we’ve played well at home but we’ve been poor away.

“The season has been very disappointing but the only plus is we’re in the league.

That’s the only thing we can take away from this season.’’ He added: “You feel a bit embarrassed to stay up after getting beat 4-1 and having to rely on other teams like we did on Saturday.

“Northampton had a really tough day and Carlisle did what they needed to do to stay up.

“Ritchie Humphreys came on and said Leeds were winning 1-0 and we heard Carlisle were winning 2-0.

“We were just thinking we had to shut up shop and not concede any more goals. It’s a bit embarrassing when it’s 4-1 to say don’t let any more in.

“With about 10 or 15 minutes to go, we pretty much knew that if we kept a clean sheet for 20 minutes, as embarrassing as that is, we would be alright."