’Keeper Brill back in the spotlight

DEAN Brill will get his chance to make up for lost time at Hartlepool on Saturday.

The former Luton Town goalkeeper will take over as Athletic’s number one following the revelation that on-loan custodian Darryl Flahavan has returned to Crystal Palace due to injury.

Complaining of a sore face in the aftermath of the 2-2 draw at Wycombe, Flahavan went to see a specialist earlier this week and an x-ray subsequently revealed that the 30-year-old had fractured a cheekbone — sustained when colliding with the goal frame chasing a shot from the halfway line which arrived immediately after Danny Whitaker’s equaliser late on in the first half.

The damage is severe enough to require surgery which will keep the player out of action for six weeks, meaning that an extension of his loan spell to a third and final month was not an option for Athletic.

For Brill, the trip to the north-east provides the ‘keeper with a chance to assert his credentials once more after an unhappy start to the season.

He hasn’t played for the first team since the 1-0 home defeat to Huddersfield on November 1, but Penney is confident he will come back strongly.

“We are happy with Dean, who has been excellent in training and for the reserves,” he said.

The chances of another loan player, striker Paul Heffernan, being kept on for a second month at Athletic are in the balance.

The Doncaster player, who has one goal in his four matches playing under his old boss Dave Penney once again, has reached the end of his initial one-month spell at Boundary Park but Athletic are keen to keep him at the club.

“We are looking to extend the loan and are speaking to Doncaster,” Penney confirmed.

“Heff is a goalscorer and he gives us another option.”

Joe Jacobson comes back into Athletic’s squad after a calf problem kept him out of the Wycombe game but there is still no return for Paul Black (groin) or Kelvin Lomax (groin).
Also back in the fold are vital duo Chris Taylor and Pawel Abbott, with both likely to be on the bench at Victoria Park. Reuben Hazell serves a one-match ban.

Loan striker Nick Blackman is set to return to Blackburn after the game.

Athletic (from): Brill, Marrow, Gregan, Jacobson, Lee, Colbeck, Stephens, Furman, Whitaker, Smalley, Abbott, Ollerenshaw, Taylor, Brooke, Parker, Rowney, McGrath, McKerr, Blackman.


ANDY Monkhouse returns from suspension for Hartlepool while Ben Clark is set to make his first start of the season in place of Sam Collins, who picked up a ban following a fifth yellow card of the season in a 3-1 defeat at Leeds United on Boxing Day.


HARTLEPOOL ground staff are hopeful that the rearranged game will go ahead.
At present, the pitch is playable. Covers are to be placed on the playing surface tomorrow in anticipation of the temperature dropping in the early hours of Saturday morning.