"I want to win every game I play," says McGrath ahead of National League Cup opener against Derby County

Sam Johnson, AJ Warburton, David Kawa, Amari Morgan-Smith, Owen Bray, Arian Allen and Tayt Trusty could all be handed starts in the match, having all been on the bench at the weekend for Town.

Hartlepool made four changes soon after kick-off to get round the competition rule where a certain number of players who appeared in the previous match have to be in the starting line-up, something Forest Green also did in the tournament last season.

But McGrath says that, while there are expected to be changes to his team from Saturday's 3-1 defeat to Boreham Wood, he will be respectful to the competition.

"I want to win every game I play," he said.

"I certainly won't do what happened at Hartlepool v Middlesbrough where it was 10-0.

"I can't have that. I think if you're going to set a team up, you've got to set them up to win a game of football.

"In certain parts of the season, we will be Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, so just because it's Derby County under 21s and the National League Cup, I think we've got to pay respect to the competition we're in, to our fans who will come and watch and certainly to the opposition we're going to play against."