Moore pleased with turnaround

Ronnie Moore hailed Hartepool's recovery after they earned a 1-1 draw at Mansfield despite finishing with nine men.

The Boxing Day battle also saw the Stags end the day with 10 men in a bruising game high on incident. The hosts dominated the first half and led through a great finish by Oxford loanee Junior Brown in the 10th minute after he had stormed his way into the box via a one-two with Vadaine Oliver. But United roared back with a much better second half display and Michael Duckworth's 52nd-minute shot deflected home past Dimitar Evtimov to level matters. The Stags lost Ryan Tafazolli to a second yellow card with 18 minutes to go, but Marlon Harewood was shown a straight red in the 87th minute and Michael Woods picked up a stoppage-time second yellow, both after clashes with Jamie McGuire. Hartlepool have now gone 10 games without a win, and new boss Moore said: "Second half I was happy, but I thought our first-half performance was a disgrace. "It's the first time in a long time I have seen 11 players perform like that and it wasn't acceptable. "We are trying to win games and you can't go out there showing fear. "They proved that second half once I had got into their ribs at half time. In the first half everything was long and straight and I've never told them to do that. "We had a decent crowd followed us here and I want to stay in the league and they want us to stay in the league, but some of the players didn't seem to care in the first half. We gave them a goal start, though I thought we might have had a penalty before that. "At half time I told them to go out there and earn the money they get as footballers and enjoy it. "It's now about belief. We are in the mire and we need to stick together, go out there and roll our sleeves up." On the red cards, he added: "We will appeal the Harewood red card. I don't understand how the linesman can give it when the referee was much nearer to it. It was too hard to make a decision for a straight red. "The other one was stupid. I told him he was walking a tightrope and don't do anything daft. Then he goes and gets involved like that." United might have had a penalty when Michael Duckworth was caught by a foot as he tried to shoot. However, the Stags roared straight upfield and Brown netted his first goal for the club. Darren Holden denied Matt Rhead on the line as Stags failed to capitalise on their first half chances, and they paid the price when Duckworth found the net via a deflection from a Harewood chest-down after a spirited start to the second half by United. Three minutes later a Matt Rhead header looked to have gone over the line after it hit a defender and the bar before coming back down. But the officials decided otherwise. Neil Austin put a late chance over from six yards as both sides had to settle for a share of the spoils. Mansfield Town boss Adam Murray said: "That performance showed where we are as a team at the minute. It showed our inconsistency - going from being really good to being really bad. "We go from big highs to major lows and if we are to do anything and succeed we need to find some level of consistency. "We will create chances, I have no doubt about that. But it's all about being ruthless - and that's in both boxes. "All the good things we did in the first half went out the window in the second. "I am asking players to be brave and dictate the match, but instead it was back to being the hot potato where players wanted to get rid of the ball as fast as possible. That's not what I am about. "To say I am disappointed is an understatement. We can't keep giving ourselves mountains to climb." On the Rhead 'goal', he added: "From where I was it looked like it had gone over the line, but I was a long way away." And on Tafazolli's dismissal, he said: "For both yellow cards I don't think he needed to do them - this is a massive learning curve for him."