Gillingham 0-1 Hartlepool

Hartlepool director of sport Chris Turner has praised striker James Brown after his first goal of the season in Saturday's 1-0 win at Gillingham.

Brown, 22, injured his cruciate ligament last November, forcing him to miss much of the campaign but has appeared five times so far this season.

"He's played nearly 90 minutes and what a fantastic finish," he told BBC Tees.

"The boy has got to be pleased with himself in the way he's got himself fit, and got himself back on track."

Brown joined Pools as a trainee and has since made 97 league appearances, scoring 23 goals.

Meanwhile Turner is refusing to be drawn on assessing the club's start to the season, which has yielded four points from four games.

As the table stands, Pools are 18th, but the former Sheffield Wednesday and Leyton Orient boss is adamant it is too early to be passing judgements but is happy with the efforts of his side so far.

"I've always said 15 games is the start of the season for me, that's when you'll see the pattern forming in the league and how the team is playing," Turner added.

"All you ask of your team is hard work and graft and that inner strength and certainly in all the game so far we've shown that."

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