Pools Youth Team have the perfect opportunity to bounce back from last weekend's Chesterfield defeat when they take on Darlington at Chester-le-Street on Saturday (11am kick-off).

The youngsters were beaten in dramatic circumstances by the Spireites after missing a penalty and then conceding a last-minute goal but Coach Micky Barron is confident his team can hit back.

"We were certainly disappointed with the result last week but there were plenty of positives to be taken from the performance," Barron told us.

"Darlington have had a fantastic start to the season; I think they have won four games and scored plenty of goals so it should be a good game and a big test for us."

Barron has extra reason to be looking for a win from his team this weekend - he wants to get one over on his old mate Craig Liddle who is now Head of Youth at Darlington.

Despite many battles on the pitch in derby clashes, Barron and Liddle have remained good friends since their early days coming through the ranks at Middlesbrough.

"All the way through our careers we wanted to beat each other so I don't see it being any different now we're on the other side of things!" Barron commented.

"We obviously want to win, but we are also looking at the overall performance - we've worked on certain things this week and we want the lads to take that in to Saturday."

The game kicks-off at 11am on Saturday at the Riverside Sports Complex.

Pools (from): Thomas, Herbert, Quantrill, Marron, Johnson, Purvis, Sharples, Martin, Ellison, Charlton, Liddle, Blackford, Scaife, Wakefield, McRoberts, Mason.

Centre of Excellence

On Sunday the Under 10s, 12s, 14s and 16s are away to Scunthorpe in games in games that will be played at St Laurences Academy (DN15 7DF).

The Under 9s, 11s, 13s and 15s will host Scunthorpe at Manor College.

All games kick-off at 11am.