IT’S never dull at the Suit Direct Stadium.

Hartlepool United and Mansfield played out an entertaining draw which showed plenty of desire, guilt edged chances and physicality throughout as the two sides deservedly shared the spoils. But the game may well be marred by a bad injury to top scorer Luke Molyneux.

The frantic action started right from the first minute. Pools seized upon a misplaced pass by Ollie Hawkins with Joe Grey picked up the pieces. Because his through pass was slightly behind Luke Molyneux, the top scorer was forced to lay off to Bryn Morris for a first time shot that keeper Nathan Bishop got behind from 25 yards.

Ben Killip returned to the side after recovering from illness that kept him out of the weekend’s defeat to Northampton. He showed his importance to the side with two outstanding saves in two minutes.

A high cross fell to Jordan Bowery inside the box but the keeper smothered his effort away before a long throw dropped to the toes of Jamie Murphy who saw his half volley parried away from point blank range.

But there was only so much the goalkeeper could do to keep the scores level as the Stags rammed their way through the Pools defence with a smart team goal. After patient build-up play, Bowery flicked a first time pass through to George Lapslie putting it on a plate for the midfielder to lash home on the volley from close range.

Things were about to get worse five minutes later as Pools shipped another soft goal.

A cross from Bowery from the right curled it’s way to the back post. Former Newcastle United defender James Perch managed to catch the header right as the ball bounced up in front of him. The ball looped over the head of Killip and into the far right corner in what turned out to be a bit of a freak goal for the Stags to double the lead. Nevertheless, Pools had now given themselves a huge task to get a result with just over a quarter of the game gone.

Graeme Lee’s side were nowhere near their best and Mansfield continued to threaten. But for the rest of the half, they showed why the slogan on their shirt says ‘Never Say Die’.

Five minutes before the interval, Neill Byrne picked out Jamie Sterry with a pinpoint ball of the top. The full-back chested the ball down and struck first time on the run and Bishop saved well but could only parry as far as Joe Grey who gobbled up the chance from close range to pull one back.

Less than two minutes later, the birthday boy handed himself the best kind of present for a footballer.

Molyneux, celebrating his 24th birthday, collected the ball in space and drove at the Mansfield defence. There were options around him but the club’s top scorer had the confidence to let rip and drive the ball into the bottom right corner from 25 yards out to ignite scenes at the Suit Direct Stadium. The equalising goal completed a cracker of a first half but could it be matched in the second?

Unfortunately, the early stages of the second half were marred by a bad injury to Pools magic man. Perch crunched into Molyneux and won the ball on the left hand side but the midfielder was hurt badly. The veteran defender attempted to reason with angry home supporters as Molyneux received lengthy treatment from medical personnel. After bringing Pools back into the game, the birthday boy left the field on a stretcher with his leg in a brace to the applause of both home and away support.

In the absence of their top scorer, Pools attempted to rally themselves. Isaac Fletcher managed to carve out some space on the edge of the box but saw his low shot saved by Bishop as he dived low to his right.

The Stags thought they had a strong shout for a penalty just before the hour mark when Sterk and Sterry collided in the box but the referee pointed for a free-kick for the home side.

Rhys Oates was brought into the action with just over 20 minutes left and was hell bent on teaching his old side a lesson. Last season’s top scorer for Pools latched onto a short Nicky Featherstone pass, burst passed Byrne but struck his shot wide of the post to cheers from around the ground. He then had a free-kick right on the edge of the box but blasted it straight at the wall.

Both sides just seemed to run out of steam towards the end of the game but in stoppage time, Joe White missed the best chance of the half.

The Newcastle United loanee intercepted a ball and charged his way passed three Mansfield defenders where he was clean through on goal. With the goalkeeper to beat, White slid the ball passed the post to miss what would have been the match winning goal.

It wasn’t to be on the night as Pools earned themselves a hard earned point to climb back into the top half of the League Two table.