EVAN Horwood admits he is still trying to work out how his third goal of the season came about on Saturday.

After cracking strikes against Northampton and Colchester, the left back netted a bizarre effort at Swindon Town.

Home goalkeeper Paul Smith rolled the ball to the left back some 30 yards from goal and his first-time effort bobbled into the net to give Pools the lead.

"I don't know what the keeper was doing to be honest,'' he smiled.

"It was just instinct more than anything. I saw that the goal was open and I've just hit it.

"Even then, I thought the keeper should have got back and saved it - so I've got to thank him really.

"I didn't really hit it the best either so I think it was a bit fortunate in the end, but I definitely meant to score.''

After losing their last three, this was Pools first drawn game in ten, their last coming against Southampton at Victoria Park in February.

And after stopping the run of defeats, Horwood admitted: "It's good for the fans who came down to show them that we haven't got our flip-flops out. We've been working really hard in training all week and you could see that in the game.

"We maybe had taken our foot off the gas a little bit but today proved we're a good team and that was back to somewhere near our best in terms of defending.

"Mick's been drilling it into us that we all have to be 100 per cent at our game and I thought we were today.

"You do fear a little bit when you concede and some of the things I was doing I was getting a bit panicky.

"It was a big test character during the last half hour, especially knowing we'd lost the last three.

"It would have looked really bad losing four in a row, especially against a team who are right down the bottom.''

Pools will be without Gary Liddle for the next three games after his dismissal. It was Pools' first in League One this season and the first of his career on his 199th Football League start.