Hartlepool vs Mansfield Match Preview

Hartlepool is ranked at 13th place with 51 points and comes after two wins a draw and two losses over the last five matches. Now with each week that passes the motivation is always smaller on their side as they do not aim for anything considering that they do not risk relegation sitting 12 points behind the promotion zone.

With 39 goals scored they do not have a very good offensive side compared with the bottom half teams and the problem is even their defense is not that great with 50 goals conceded. In the last five matches they failed to keep a clean sheet in four of them totaling for eight goals conceded.

Their best scorer is Molyneux with 7 goals scored and considering their rivals of today have a solid defense I see a tough task ahead of Hartlepool.

Mansfield, on the other hand, is ranked at 8th place with 62 points and comes after three wins and two losses over the last five matches. Both losses came against teams ranked higher than them and in the loss against Tranmere they were really unlucky conceding in the final seconds. Anyway, they have three games in hand and just by winning in this one they would in the play off zone and sit one point behind the direct promotion zone.

With 50 goals scored so far they have shown quite a good offensive side and in the last five matches they have scored a total of eight goals averaging more than a goal per game while managing to find the back of the net at least once in each occasion. They have been scoring consistently for seven consecutive games now.

For them, the best players have been Oates 9 goals - 6 assists and Bowery 7 goals - 3 assists but also the left back McLaughlin with 4 goals - 7 assists has also been crucial.

In conclusion, I think Mansfield can win this match or get at least a draw out of it. The current form is not the best but they still have a better team than their rivals and the motivation is on their side. They lost just one game against teams from the bottom half of the table while playing away from home. Even in the previous h2h game this season Mansfield won 3-2.